Europe has a rich Christian culture, especially as numerous saints, martyrs and popes were European themselves. All of the Roman Catholic popes from 741 to 2013 were from Europe.[5] Europe brought together many of the Christian holy sites and heritage and religious centers.[6]

The Record of Saint Dorotheus Bishop of Tyre is that the Church at Tyre sent Saint Aristobulus (of the seventy) to Britain as bishop in AD 37. The Church seems to have been begun by him around the Bristol Channel area and 150 years later we have names of bishops recorded. By AD 550 there are recorded 120 bishops spread throughout the British Isles.

I am talking about the common tradition of Christianity which has made Europe what it is, and about the common cultural elements which this common Christianity has brought with it. If Asia were converted to Christianity tomorrow, it would not thereby become a part of Europe. It is in Christianity that our arts have developed; it is in Christianity that the laws of Europe have--until recently--been rooted. It is against a background of Christianity that all our thought has significance. An individual European may not believe that the Christian Faith is true, and yet what he says, and makes, and does, will all spring out of his heritage of Christian culture and depend upon that culture for its meaning. Only a Christian culture could have produced a Voltaire or a Nietzsche. I do not believe that the culture of Europe could survive the complete disappearance of the Christian Faith.[. . .] The Western World has its unity in this heritage, in Christianity and in the ancient civilisations of Greece, Rome, and Israel, from which, owing to two thousand years of Christianity, we trace our descent.

Although the Protestant reformation was a religious movement, it also had a strong impact on all other aspects of European life: marriage and family, education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy, and the arts.[31]

^Rüegg, Walter: "Foreword. The University as a European Institution", in: A History of the University in Europe. Vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN0-521-36105-2, pp. XIX–XX

1.
Christianity in Turkey
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The percentage of Christians in Turkey fell from 19 percent in 1914 to 2. Today there are more than 160,000 people of different Christian denominations, There is also a small group of ethnic Orthodox-Christian Turks who follow the Greek Orthodox or Syrian Orthodox church. They are often confused with ethnic Greeks, some of them actually have a Greek background, but there are ethnic Turks, who never converted to Islam in the history between this population. Currently there are 236 churches open for worship in Turkey, the Eastern Orthodox Church has been headquartered in Istanbul since the 4th century. Two out of the five centers of the ancient Pentarchy are in Turkey, Constantinople, for a thousand years, the Hagia Sophia was the largest church in the world. Turkey is also home to the Seven Churches of Asia, where the Revelation to John was sent, the cave of the Seven Sleepers is also located in Ephesus. All of the first seven Ecumenical Councils which are recognized by both the Western and Eastern churches were held in present-day Turkey. Of these, the Nicene Creed, declared with the First Council of Nicaea in 325, is of utmost importance and has provided the essential definitions of present-day Christianity and this was followed by the continued emigration of most of the remaining indigenous Christians over the next century. During the tumultuous period of the first world war and founding of the Turkish republic, prior to this time, the Christian population stood at around 20% of the total. In the 19th century in Turkey there were campaigns against Assyrians which often had the assistance of Kurdish paramilitary support. In 1915, Turks and Kurds massacred tens of thousands Assyrians in Siirt and this number doubles if the killings during the 1890s are included. Kurds saw the Assyrians as dangerous foreigners and enforcers of the British colonizers, the Kurds fought the Assyrians also due to fears that the Armenians, or European colonial powers backing them, would assume control in Anatolia. Kurdish milita plundered Armenian and other Christian villages, kurdish-dominated Hamidiye units slaughtered Christian Armenians in Tur Abdin region in 1915. In 1915, Turks and Kurds plundered the Assyrian village of Mar-Zaya in Jelu and slaughtered the population, in September 1914 more than 30 Armenian and Assyrian villages were burnt by Kurdish and Turkish mobs in the Urmia region. Turks and Kurds also slaughtered Christians in Diarbekir, There was a policy during the Hamidian era to use Kurdish tribes as irregulars against the Armenians. The newspaper Milliyet reported that 35,000 Muslim Turks converted to Christianity in 2008, There is small ethnic Turkish Protestant Christian community in Turkey which number about 4, 000-5,000 adherents most of them came from Muslim Turkish background. According to Bekir Bozdağ, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, there were 349 active churches in Turkey,140 Greek,58 Assyrian and 52 Armenian. Constantinople – The largest Christian population in Turkey is in Istanbul, the Patriarchate of Greek Orthodox Christianity

2.
Christianity in Azerbaijan
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Christianity in Azerbaijan is a minority religion. Christians who estimated between 280, 000-450,000 are mostly Russian and Georgian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic, there is also a small ethnic Azerbaijani Protestant Christian community most of them came from Muslim backgrounds. The Molokans are a Christian minority which, much like Protestants in Western Europe, center their beliefs on the Bible,2. 5% of the population belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Orthodox Church has the Eparchy of Baku and the Caspian region with a seat in Azerbaijan, there is only one Roman Catholic congregation. A Roman Catholic church in Baku was opened in 2007, the Albanian-Udi Church is of the Udi people minority in Azerbaijan. There is a German Lutheran community, likely to less than 7,000 Protestants. There is also a Georgian Orthodox community and churches, the Armenian Apostolic Church currently has no community outside the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Before the outbreak of the war, Armenians formed the largest Christian population, the Armenian churches in Azerbaijan remain closed, because of the large outmigration of Armenians and fear of Azerbaijani attacks. At the height of atrocities against the Armenian minorities in Baku in 1990, the Armenian Church of St. Gregory Illuminator in Baku was set on fire, but was restored in 2004 and is not used anymore

3.
Christianity in Kosovo
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Christianity in Kosovo has a long-standing tradition dating to the Roman Empire. Before the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the entire Balkan region had been Christianized by both the Roman and Byzantine Empires, from 1389 until 1912, Kosovo was officially governed by the Muslim Ottoman Empire and a high level of Islamization occurred. During the time period after World War II, Kosovo was ruled by secular socialist authorities in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, during that period, Kosovars became increasingly secularized. Today, over 90% of Kosovos population are from Muslim family backgrounds, but also including Slavic speakers and Turks. About three percent of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo remain Roman Catholic despite centuries of Ottoman rule, there are still reported cases of families returning to their Catholic faith (There are an estimated 65,000 Catholics in Kosovo and another 60,000 Kosovar born Catholics outside of Kosovo. Mother Teresa, whose parents were possibly from Kosovo, saw the vision which decided her upon her religious vocation at the Church of the Black Madonna at Letnica in Kosovo, the central boulevard in Pristina is named after her. A Catholic Cathedral was consecrated in Pristina in 2011, having built on land donated by the municipality. The Serb population, estimated at 100,000 to 120,000 persons, is largely Serbian Orthodox. Kosovo has 26 monasteries and many churches, Serb Orthodox churches and monasteries. of which three are world Heritage Sites, the Monastery of the Patriarchate of Peć, Visoki Decani, and Gračanica. Dozens of churches were destroyed, and others damaged, after the end of Serbian governance in 1999, there is also a small number of evangelical Protestants, whose tradition dates back to the Methodist missionaries work centered in Bitola in the late 19th century. They are represented by the Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church, islam in Kosovo Roman Catholicism in Kosovo Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church

4.
Christianity in Albania
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Christianity in Albania was established throughout the country in 325 AD. From 1100 AD, the Byzantine Empire carried out Church missions in the area, in relation to the increasing influence of Venice, the Franciscans started to settle down in the area in the 13th century. From the 15th century to the 19th century, under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, a Pew Research Center demographic study from 2010 put the percentage of Muslims in Albania at 82. 1%. However, the Albanian government gives the percentages of religious affiliations with only 38% Muslim, 16% Eastern Orthodox, 17% Catholic and 25% atheist or nonreligious. A2015 study estimated some 13,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background, according to the numbers given by the government in 2010 it was stated that Eastern Orthodoxy was practiced by about 20% of Albanians within Albania. However, in the 2011 census the percentage of Orthodox believers was 6. 75%, Eastern Orthodoxy is also practiced by many ethnic Albanians in the Balkans and Albanian communities living in western Europe, the United States and Australia. Albania is historically linked with both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy as well as Islam, Albanians were among the first peoples of the region to receive missionaries and convert to Christianity. With the split of the Church in 1054, Orthodoxy become the religion for the Albanians inhabiting the areas under the Byzantine rule, the first Orthodox liturgy in the Albanian language was held not in Albania, but in Massachusetts. Subsequently, when the Orthodox Church was allowed no official existence in communist Albania, the Roman Catholic Church in Albania is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. According to the numbers given by the government in 2010 it was stated that around 17% of the population is Catholic. There are five dioceses in the country, including two archdioceses plus an Apostolic Administration covering southern Albania, protestants in Albania, stand at about 8,000, whereas 189 different Protestant associations including the Albanian Evangelical Alliance exist in Albania. Religion in Albania Orthodoxy in Albania Roman Catholicism in Albania Protestantism in Albania Islam in Albania Tönnes, in The Encyclopedia of Christianity, edited by Erwin Fahlbusch and Geoffrey William Bromiley, 35-36

5.
Christianity in Kazakhstan
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Christianity in Kazakhstan is the second most practiced religion after Islam. About 1.5 percent of the population is ethnically German, there are also many Presbyterians, Jehovahs Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists and Pentecostals. Methodists, Mennonites, and Mormons have also registered churches with the government, there are more Protestant congregations -93 nontraditional Protestant Christian churches registered with the Kazakh government from 2006 to 2007. There are 83 Roman Catholic churches in Kazakhstan, according to a 2009 national census, 26% of Kazakhstans population is Christian. There are two Baptist organizations in Kazakhstan, the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians and Baptists, with 1,000 members,198 churches affiliated with the Baptist Union are registered with the government. According to the 2009 Census, there were 4,214,232 Christians in Kazakhstan, by the time they were conquered by Genghis Khan most of the Naimans were Christians. They remained so after the Mongol conquest and were among the wave of Christians to enter China with Kublai Khan. Meanwhile, the Naimans who settled in Western Khanates of Mongol Empire all eventually converted to Islam, both Kashkumbaev and the 34-year-old Almenova deny the charges with Almenova insisted that she was perfectly healthy and that the pastor had done nothing to damage her health. On 9 October 2015, a court in Astana began hearing the case against 54-year-old Yqylas Qabduaqasov charged with inciting religious hatred, Qabduaqasov is a Protestant convert and an active member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Saryarqa District Court Judge Aqmaral Isaeva allowed journalists to film only three minutes of the start and then banned any recording devices in the courtroom. Several witnesses in the case testified that Qabduaqasov expressed ideas during Bible study sessions that sounded insulting to Muslims, Qabduaqasov, who was arrested in mid-August, pleaded not guilty. In spite of persecution of converts from Islam to Christianity, a 2015 study estimates some 50,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background residing in the country. Bukharan Jews Judaism in Kazakhstan Hinduism in Kazakhstan Islam in Kazakhstan Catholicism in Kazakhstan Map of Catholic Churches in Kazakhstan Pope John Paul the Second visits Kazakhstan

6.
Christianity in the Republic of Macedonia
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The Serbian Holy Synod denounced the decision and condemned the clergy as schismatic. Thenceforth, the Macedonian Church has remained unrecognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, in 1767 the Archbishopric was abolished by the Ottoman authorities and annexed to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Efforts were made throughout the nineteenth and the first part of the centuries to restore the Archdiocese. As Vardar Macedonia became part of Serbia after World War I, since 1918, while the region of Macedonia was occupied by Bulgaria during World War II, the local dioceses temporarily came again under the control of the Bulgarian Exarchate. The first modern assembly of Macedonian clergy was held near Ohrid in 1943, in 1944 an Initiative Board for the organization of the Macedonian Orthodox Church was officially formed. In 1945, the First Clergy and Peoples Synod met and adopted a Resolution for the restoration of the Ohrid Archbishopric as a Macedonian Orthodox Church and it was submitted to the Serbian Orthodox Church, which since 1919 had been the sole church in Vardar Macedonia. Dimitrija Stojkovski, a Macedonian, was appointed the first archbishop of Ohrid, the Macedonian Orthodox Church at that time only held autonomous status. In 1962, Serbian Patriarch German II and Russian Patriarch Alexy visited the Macedonian republic, at its third synod in 1967, on the bicentennial anniversary of the abolition of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, the Macedonian Church proclaimed its autocephaly. The Serbian Church bishops denounced the decision and condemned the clergy as schismatic, for all the subsequent efforts to gain recognition, the autocephaly of the Macedonian Church is not recognized by other canonical Orthodox churches in defense of Serbian opposition. The Macedonian Orthodox Church has about 1200 churches in Macedonia organized in 10 eparchies, whose bishops make up the Holy Synod of Bishops, headed by the Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia. He hoped that, The church also pays attention in preserving the national identity. Many Orthodox churches who are recognized with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople admit the faithful of the Macedonian Orthodox Church to holy communion, the hierarchy of some churches serve with the Macedonian Orthodox priests, but will not serve liturgically with the hierarchy. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Serbian Patriarchate has sought to restore its control over the Macedonian Church, the Macedonian church sees these efforts, supported by other Orthodox churches, as closely connected to the Serbian government agenda. The agreement was signed and agreed upon by three Bishops in the Macedonian Orthodox Church, suddenly the signed agreement was rejected by the Macedonian government and the Holy Synod of MOC. The Macedonian side regarded Jovan as a traitor and Serbian puppet, Jovan complained of a new state-backed media campaign against his Church. They are creating an unstable, explosive atmosphere among the population and are virtually inviting people to lynch us, the government has denied registration of his Church, attacked its places of worship and launched a criminal case against him. He was arrested, removed from his bishopric and then expelled from the country and he returned in 2005 and, after attempting to perform a baptism, he was arrested, and sentenced to 18 months in prison and jailed with extremely limited visitation rights. On March 19,2006, after spending 220 days in prison, Macedonian border police often denied Serbian priests entry into the country in clerical garb

7.
Christianity in France
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France is a country where freedom of religion and freedom of thought are guaranteed by virtue of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Republic is based on the principle of laïcité enforced by the 1880s Jules Ferry laws and the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches, while millions in France continue to attend religious services regularly, the overall level of observance is considerably lower than in the past. This makes France one of the more atheistic countries in the world, France guarantees freedom of religion as a constitutional right and the government generally respects this right in practice. Catholicism is the religion in France. During the Ancien Régime, France had traditionally considered the Churchs eldest daughter. This led to conflicts, in particular during the Reformation between Catholics and Huguenots. A strong Protestant population resided in France, primarily of Reformed confession and it was persecuted by the state for most of the time, with temporary periods of relative toleration. These wars continued throughout the 16th century, with the 1572 St. Bartholomews Day massacre as its apex, for the first time, Huguenots were considered by the state as more than mere schismatics and heretics. The Edict of Nantes thus opened a path for secularism and tolerance, Religious conflicts resumed in the end of the 17th century, when Louis XIV, the Sun King, initiated the persecution of Huguenots by introducing the dragonnades in 1681. These wave of violence intimidated the Protestants into converting to Catholicism and he made this policy official with the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes. On 17 January 1686, Louis XIV himself claimed that out of a Huguenot population of 800,000 to 900,000, a Camisard rebellion broke out in 1702 in the Cevennes mountains. The experiment of religious toleration in Europe was effectively ended for the time being, in practice, the revocation caused France to suffer a brain drain, as it lost a large number of skilled craftsmen, including key designers such as Daniel Marot. Some rulers, such as Frederick Wilhelm of Brandenburg, who issued the Edict of Potsdam, encouraged the Protestants to flee, during the French Revolution, the Catholic Church lost its power and influence. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, passed in 1790, put the Catholic Church under state control, while the clergy was persecuted by the commune of Paris and some of the representatives on mission, new religions and philosophies were allowed to compete with Catholicism. Following the Thermidorian Reaction the persecutions ceased but the schism between the French government and the Catholic Church wouldnt end until the Concordat of 1801 by Napoleon. After the Bourbon Restoration and the coming to power of the Ultra-royalists in the Chambre introuvable, under Villèles ultra-royalist government, the Chamber voted in the extreme 1830 Anti-Sacrilege Act. A1905 law instituted the separation of Church and State and prohibited the government from recognising, salarying or subsidising any religion, however the Briand-Ceretti Agreement subsequently restored for a while a formal role for the state in the appointment of Catholic bishops. For similar historical reasons, Catholic priests in French Guiana are civil servants of the local government, Religious buildings built prior to 1905 at taxpayers expense are retained by the local or national government, and may be used at no expense by religious organizations

8.
Christianity in the United Kingdom
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Religion in the United Kingdom and in the countries that preceded it has been dominated, for over 1,400 years, by various forms of Christianity. According to the 2011 UK census, Christianity is the religion, followed by Islam. Among Christians, Anglicans are the most common denomination, followed by Roman Catholics and this, and the relatively large number of individuals with nominal or no religious affiliations, has led commentators to variously describe the United Kingdom as a multi-faith and secularised society. The United Kingdom was formed by the union of independent countries from 1707. While some groups have structures for the individual countries of the United Kingdom, others may have a single structure covering England. Similarly, due to the recent creation of Northern Ireland in 1921. While the United Kingdom as a whole lacks an official religion, the Monarch of the United Kingdom is the Supreme Governor of the Church, and accordingly, only a Protestant may inherit the British throne. Pre-Roman forms of religion in Britain included various forms of ancestor worship, little is known about the details of such religions. Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for over 1,400 years and it was introduced by the Romans to what is now England, Wales, and Southern Scotland. The doctrine of Pelagianism, declared heretical in the Council of Carthage of 418, originated with a British-born ascetic, still in the Anglo-Saxon period, the archbishops of Canterbury established a tradition of receiving their pallium from Rome to symbolize the authority of the Pope. It retains a representation in the UK Parliament and the British monarch is its Supreme Governor, in Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, established in a separate Scottish Reformation in the sixteenth century, is recognised as the national church. The adherence to Roman Catholicism continued at levels in different parts of Britain, especially among recusants and in the north of England. This would expand in Great Britain, partly due to Irish immigration in the century, the Catholic emancipation. Particularly from the century, forms of Protestant nonconformity, including Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers and, later, Methodists. The Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and, as the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1870 before the partition of Ireland, the Jews in England were expelled in 1290 and only emancipated in the 19th century. British Jews had numbered fewer than 10,000 in 1800, scholars have suggested multiple possible reasons for the decline, but have not agreed on their relative importance. Martin Wellings lays out the model of secularization, while noting that it has been challenged by some scholars. The statistics for current religion from the 2011 census and the statistics from the 2001 census are set out in the tables below

9.
Christianity in Sweden
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Lutheran Christianity is officially the largest religion in Sweden, with 6.2 million Swedish citizens being members of the Church of Sweden. The high membership figure is mainly due to the fact that until 1996 all newborn children with at least one parent being a member of the church were made members. Other Christian Churches include the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, islam is the second largest religion in Sweden, practiced by 5% of the population. The rest of the population are irreligious or members of other religious groups. Sweden was Christianized from Norse paganism during a period, not final until the 1130s. Since the 16th century, Sweden has been predominantly Lutheran, from the Protestant Reformation in the 1530s until 2000, the Lutheran Church of Sweden was the state church. As of 2015,63. 3% of Swedish citizens are members of the Church of Sweden, compared to over 95% in 1970, atheism and agnosticism are widespread in Swedish society. In a Eurobarometer Poll in 2010, just 18% of Swedish citizens responded that they there is a god. In a 2009 Gallup poll, 17% answered yes to the question Is religion an important part of daily life. A survey found that only 15% of Church of Sweden members actually believe in Jesus, while another 15% identified as atheists, less than 4% of the Church of Sweden membership attends public worship during an average week, about 2% are regular attendees. Some scholars consider the nation to be a place where religion is regarded with “benign indifference”. The history of the Jews in Sweden can be traced back to the 17th century, because of immigration in the latter part of the 20th century, there is today a sizeable minority of Muslims and Roman Catholics. Before the 11th century, most Swedes adhered to Norse paganism, worshipping Æsir gods, the shape and location of this temple is sparsely documented, but it is referenced in the Norse sagas and Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum, and is also described by Adam of Bremen. It was probably destroyed by King Ingold I in 1087 during the last known battle between the pagans and the Christians, the oldest evidence of Christian burial sites in Sweden are dated to the 6th century, but they are very few in number. The earliest documented campaign to Christianize the territory that form today is the country of Sweden was made by the monk Ansgar. Making his first visit to Birka in 828-829, he was granted permission to build a church, in 831, he returned home and became Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, with responsibility for Christianity in the north. Around 850, he back to Birka, where the original congregation had been shattered. Ansgar tried to reestablish it, but it lasted a few years

10.
Christianity in Germany
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Christianity is the largest religion in Germany, with an estimated 59. 4% of the countrys population in 2015. The two largest churches of the country are the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany, together, both churches claim 56% of the population in 2015, of which 28. 9% belonged to the Catholic Church and 27. 1% to the Evangelical Church. In 2015, the Orthodox Church constituted 2% of the population and other minor Christian churches, many of them being Evangelical Protestant, 34-36% of the countrys population are not affiliated with any church or religion, and a minority adhere to other religions. The second largest religion in Germany is Islam, with between 2.1 and 4.7 million adherents, smaller religious groups include Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism. In the territories of Germany under the control of the Roman Empire, early Christianity was introduced, although pagan Roman temples existed beforehand, Christian religious structures were soon built, such as the Aula Palatina in Trier, completed during the reign of Constantine I. During the Carolingian period, Christianity spread throughout Germany, particularly during the reign of Charlemagne, religious structures built during the Carolingian period include the Palatine Chapel, Aachen, a surviving component of the Palace of Aachen. Territories of the present-day Germany, like much of Europe, were entirely Roman Catholic with religious break-offs being suppressed by both the Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor. Roman Catholicism was the established religion in the Holy Roman Empire until the advent of the Protestant Reformation changed this drastically. In the early 16th century there was much discontent occasioned by abuses such as selling indulgences in the Catholic Church, in 1517 the Reformation began with the publication of Martin Luthers 95 Theses which detailed 95 assertions Luther believed to show corruption and misguidance within the Catholic Church. It demonstrated Luthers disagreement both with the way in which the clergy, especially the pope, used and abused power. In 1521 Luther was outlawed at the Diet of Worms, Luther translated the Bible from Latin to German, establishing the basis of the German language. A curious fact is that Luther spoke a dialect which had minor importance in the German language of that time, after the publication of his Bible, his dialect evolved into what is now the modern German. With the protestation of the Lutheran princes at the Imperial Diet of Speyer and rejection of the Lutheran Augsburg Confession at Augsburg, from 1545 the Counter-Reformation began in Germany. The main force was provided by the Jesuit order and it restored Catholicism to many areas. In 1547, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V defeated the Schmalkaldic League, the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 brought recognition of the Lutheran faith. But the treaty stipulated that the religion of a state was to be that of its ruler. In 1608/1609 the Protestant Union and the Catholic League were formed, the Thirty Years War was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. The war was primarily in German lands, and involved most of the countries of Europe

11.
Christianity in Belarus
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The majority of the population of Belarus is Eastern Orthodox. The majority of Orthodox Christians in Belarus belong to the Belarusian Orthodox Church, there is a Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church which is not officially registered. There are about 1.7 million Catholics in the country, the Roman Catholic archdiocese is the archdiocese Minsk and Mahiliou. The other dioceses are Hrodna, Pinsk and Vitsebsk, home worship is prohibited in Belarus. Several Greek Catholic as well as several Protestant churches have been prohibited to register with official authority, there are more than 500,000 Protestants in Belarus. Baptists affiliated to the Baptist World Alliance number more than 11000 in 1998, there were 170 Pentecostal congregations in 1993. Lutherans belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, there was a hungerstrike as a reaction to limitation of Christian religious liberty

12.
Christianity in Switzerland
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Christianity is the predominant religion of Switzerland, its presence going back to the Roman era. Since the 16th century, Switzerland has been divided into Roman Catholic. However, adherence to churches has declined since the late 20th century, furthermore notable is the significant difference in church adherence between Swiss citizens and foreign nationals in 2015. Switzerland as a state has no state religion, though most of the cantons recognize official churches, in all cases including the Catholic Church. These churches, and in some also the Old Catholic Church. The country was historically about evenly balanced between Catholic and Protestant, with a patchwork of majorities over most of the country. One canton, Appenzell, was divided into Catholic and Protestant sections in 1597. The larger cities and their cantons used to be predominantly Protestant, central Switzerland, the Valais, the Ticino, Appenzell Innerrhodes, the Jura, and Fribourg are traditionally Catholic. A1980 initiative calling for the separation of church and state was rejected by 78. 9% of the voters. 31% of all Catholics are foreign nationals vice versa 5% with Protestants, the unaffiliated form 21. 6% of Switzerlands population as of 2012, and are especially strong in canton of Basel-City, canton of Neuchâtel, canton of Geneva, canton of Vaud, and Zürich. Rather recent immigration during the last 25 years has brought Islam, other Christian minority communities include Neo-Pietism, Pentecostalism, Methodism, the New Apostolic Church, Jehovahs Witnesses, and the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland as of 2000. Minor non-Christian minority groups are Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and other religions,3. 6% did not make a statement on the 2000 census. However, the Catholic Jesuits were banned from all activities in either clerical or pedagogical functions by Article 51 of the Swiss constitution in 1848, the reason was the perceived threat resulting from Jesuit advocacy of traditionalist Catholicism to the stability of the state. The settlement restrictions placed on Swiss Jews in various instances between the 14th and 18th centuries were lifted with the revised Swiss Constitution of 1874, in November 2009,57. 5% of Swiss voters approved of a popular initiative to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland. The four existing Swiss minarets, at mosques in Zurich, Geneva, Winterthur, full freedom of religion has been guaranteed since the revised Swiss Constitution of 1874. During the Old Swiss Confederacy, there had been no de facto freedom of religion, Swiss Jews had been given full political rights in 1866, although their right to settle freely was implemented as late as 1879 in the canton of Aargau. The basic right protected by the constitution is that of public confession of adherence to a religious community, Article 36 of the constitution introduces a limitation of these rights if they conflict with public interest or if they encroach upon the basic rights of others. Thus, ritual slaughter is prohibited as conflicting with Swiss animal laws, performance of cultic or missionary activities or religious processions on public ground may be limited

13.
Christianity in Cyprus
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Christianity in Cyprus is the largest religion making up 78% of the islands population. The largest branch is the Greek Orthodox Church, while the rest are the religious groups of the Anglicans, Roman and Latin Christians, Maronites, Armenian Apostolics. The most important church in Cyprus, the Church of Cyprus, is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church within the Orthodox tradition using the Greek liturgy and it recognized the seniority and prestige of the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople, while retaining complete administrative autonomy under its own archbishop. The Great Schism, as the split between Catholic and Orthodox became known, had consequences for the Church of Cyprus. Under Lusignan and Venetian rule, the Church of Cyprus was pressured to recognize the authority of the Roman pope, at independence Archbishop Makarios III, a former monk, was elected president of the republic, holding this position until his death in 1977. His successor, Archbishop Chrysostomos, was head of the Church of Cyprus until 2006 and he was succeeded by the current Archbishop Chrysostomos II. The church had long been composed of four episcopal sees, the archbishopric of Nicosia, and the metropolitanates of Paphos, Kition, new metropolitanates were created by Makarios in 1973 for Limassol and Morphou, with a suffragan, or assistant, bishop in Salamis under the archbishop. A bishop had to be a graduate of the Orthodox theological seminary in Greece, since Orthodox bishops were sworn to a vow of celibacy and parish clergy were usually married, bishops were recruits from monasteries rather than parish churches. Bishops were not appointed by the archbishop, but, like him, were elected through a system granting representation to laymen, other bishops, abbots, in exchange for many church lands acquired by the government, the government assumed responsibility for church salaries. Parish clergy, traditionally married men chosen by their villagers, were sent for brief training before ordination. In the 20th century, modernizers, most notably Archbishop Makarios, were instrumental in strengthening the quality, the monasteries of Cyprus had always been very important to the Church of Cyprus. By the 20th century many had long lain in ruins, but their properties were among the most important holdings of the church, although the number of monks decreased in the postwar era, in the early 1990s there were at least ten active monasteries in the government-controlled areas. In the Orthodox church, liturgy is to an extent the center of the churchs activity, for Orthodox doctrine emphasizes the mystery of Gods grace rather than salvation through works. Seven sacraments are recognized, baptism in infancy, followed by confirmation with consecrated oil, penance, the Eucharist, matrimony, ordination, formal services are lengthy and colorful, with chanting, incense, and elaborate vestments according to the occasion for the presiding priest. The veneration of icons is done often, located on the churchs walls, Easter is the focus of the church year, closing the Lenten fasting with an Pascha Easter Eve vigil and procession. Marriage is a highly ritualized occasion, formal divorce proceedings are required for broken engagements that have been ratified by the church. The wedding sponsors play an important role in the family, for they usually act as godparents of all born of that union. In traditional rural villages, women attended services more frequently than men, Church attendance among Greek Cypriots is relatively high, making the Republic of Cyprus one of the most religious countries in the European Union, along with Malta, Greece and Poland

14.
Christianity in Russia
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Christianity in Russia is by some estimates the largest religion in the country, with nearly 50% of the population identifying as Christian. The largest tradition is the Russian Orthodox Church, by official information, there are 68 eparchies of Russian Orthodox Church. A large number of operating in the country are from Protestant denominations. In Russia today, about 280,000 associate with over 2200 congregations of Jehovahs Witnesses, there is one Roman Catholic Archdiocese with three suffragan dioceses and Apostolic Prefecture of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk. According to a 2012 Sreda Arena survey 46. 6% of the Russian population is Christian, there is no official census of religion in Russia, and estimates are based on surveys only. In August 2012, ARENA determined that about 46. 8% of Russians are Christians, however, later that year the Levada Center determined that 76% of Russians are Christians, and in June 2013 the Public Opinion Foundation determined that 65% of Russians are Christians. These findings are in line with Pews 2011 survey, which determined that 73. 6% of Russians are Christians, with VTSIOMs 2010 survey, a 2015 study estimated some 10,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background. According to a survey held in Russia by Sreda Arena, every church building and its attendees constitute a parish. All parishes in a geographical region belong to an eparchy, there are around 130 Russian Orthodox eparchies worldwide. Further, some eparchies are organized into exarchates, or autonomous churches, currently these include the Orthodox Churches of Belarusian exarchate, the Latvian, the Moldovan, and the Estonian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate. The Chinese and Japanese Orthodox Churches were granted autonomy by Moscow Patriarchate. Smaller eparchies are usually governed by a single bishop, larger eparchies, exarchates, and autonomous churches are governed by metropolitans and sometimes also have one or more bishops assigned to them. The highest level of authority in the Church is represented by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the Holy Synod is the governing body of the Church in the period between the Bishops’ Councils. By information of Saint Tikhons Orthodox University and other researchers, from one to several hundred thousands of Orthodox believers were repressed for their faith in the Soviet time. According to figures released on February 2,2010, the Russian Orthodox Church has 160 dioceses including 30,142 parishes served by 207 bishops,28,434 priests and 3,625 deacons, there are 788 monasteries, including 386 for men and 402 for women. In 1971 the Moscow Patriarchate revoked the anathemas placed on the Old Believers in the 17th century, an Old Believer parish in the United States has entered into communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Old-Believer churches in Russia currently have started restoration of their property, Roman Catholic Church in Russia has one Archdiocese of Mother of God at Moscow, three dioceses, one Apostolic Exarchate and one Apostolic Prefecture in Yuzhno Sakhalinsk. The Catholic Archbishop of Moscow has voiced his support for education in state sponsored schools

15.
Christianity in Montenegro
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While Orthodox Christianity is the dominant form of religion in Montenegro, there are also sizable numbers of adherents of both Islam and Catholic Christianity. The dominant Church is the Serbian Orthodox Church although traces of a forming Montenegrin Orthodox Church are present, Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion in Montenegro. Adherents of Orthodox Christianity in Montenegro are predominantly Montenegrins and Serbs, ethnic Montenegrins are divided between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Montenegrin Orthodox Church. The current Metropolitan bishop is Amfilohije Radović and he is a vocal supporter of Russia and has repeatedly denounced NATO, calling its actions similar to that of the Ottoman Empire and that the organization is a national fascist pact. Muslims form the largest minority religion in the country, Montenegros 118,477 Muslims make up 19. 11% of the total population. Islam is the majority religion in Rožaje, Plav, Gusinje, Ulcinj, Catholic Christianity is mostly present in the region of Boka Kotorska, where there is a significant presence of ethnic Croats. Also, a number of ethnic Albanians are adherents of Catholic Christianity and it has 21 parishes and 22,720 faithful, consisting mostly of a group of ethnic Rusyn Greek Catholics in the region of Vojvodina. In February 2012, the Montenegrin Prime Minister Igor Lukšić signed an agreement with the Montenegrin Jewish community to grant official recognition of Jews as a minority in Montenegro. The agreement also established Judaism as the fourth official religion, along with Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity. The majority of Montenegros population,98. 69%, declares to belong to a religion, though observance of their declared religion may vary widely, from secular to religious. On the census from 2011, atheists, those who declared no religion, comprised about 1. 24% of the whole population, religiosity is lowest in the Bay of Kotor region and the capital city of Podgorica. Municipalities with highest share of atheists are Herceg Novi, Kotor, Podgorica, in contrast, Rožaje has the fewest atheists, who make up only 0. 01% of its population. Orthodoxy in Montenegro Roman Catholic Church in Montenegro Protestantism in Montenegro Islam in Montenegro History of the Jews in Montenegro

16.
Christianity in Slovenia
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Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a nation state in southern Central Europe, located at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and it covers 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.06 million. It is a republic and a member of the United Nations, European Union. The capital and largest city is Ljubljana, additionally, the Dinaric Alps and the Pannonian Plain meet on the territory of Slovenia. The country, marked by a significant biological diversity, is one of the most water-rich in Europe, with a river network, a rich aquifer system. Over half of the territory is covered by forest, the human settlement of Slovenia is dispersed and uneven. Slovenia has historically been the crossroads of South Slavic, Germanic, Romance, although the population is not homogeneous, the majority is Slovene. Slovene is the language throughout the country. Slovenia is a largely secularized country, but its culture and identity have been influenced by Catholicism as well as Lutheranism. The economy of Slovenia is small, open, and export-oriented and has strongly influenced by international conditions. It has been hurt by the Eurozone crisis, started in the late 2000s. The main economic field is services, followed by industry and construction, Historically, the current territory of Slovenia was part of many different state formations, including the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, followed by the Habsburg Monarchy. In October 1918, the Slovenes exercised self-determination for the first time by co-founding the State of Slovenes, Croats, in December 1918, they merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During World War II, Slovenia was occupied and annexed by Germany, Italy, and Hungary, with a tiny area transferred to the Independent State of Croatia, in June 1991, after the introduction of multi-party representative democracy, Slovenia split from Yugoslavia and became an independent country. Present-day Slovenia has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and there is evidence of habitation from around 250,000 years ago. A pierced cave bear bone, dating from 43100 ±700 BP, in the 1920s and 1930s, artifacts belonging to the Cro-Magnon such as pierced bones, bone points, and needle were found by archaeologist Srečko Brodar in Potok Cave. It shows that wooden wheels appeared almost simultaneously in Mesopotamia and Europe, in the transition period between the Bronze age to the Iron age, the Urnfield culture flourished. Archaeological remains dating from the Hallstatt period have been found, particularly in southeastern Slovenia, among them a number of situlas in Novo Mesto, in the Iron Age, present-day Slovenia was inhabited by Illyrian and Celtic tribes until the 1st century BC

17.
Christianity in Spain
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The Catholic Church in Spain is part of the Catholic Church under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome, and the Spanish Episcopal Conference. According to romans 15,28 in the Romans, Roman Catholicism, after 410 AD, Spain was taken over by the Visigoths who had been converted to Arian Christianity around 360. From the 5th to the 7th century, about thirty synods, were held at Toledo to regulate and standardize matters of discipline, medieval Spain was the scene of almost constant warfare between Muslim and Christian kingdoms. Muslim and Christian people lived in peaceful co-existence under Muslim rule such as in Al-Andalus with many instances of inter-religious marriage, however, there was tension frm the Pope and the Catholic Church to oppose Muslim rule in Spain and to reclaim Europe. This was the period of the so-called Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, faced with the choice of death, conversion, or emigration, many Jews and Christians fled to North Africa and Egypt. The Reconquista was the process by which the Catholics reconquered Spain from Muslims by 1492. The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 to complete the religious purification of the Iberian Peninsula, in the centuries that followed, Spain saw itself as the bulwark of Catholicism and doctrinal purity. Holy Week in Spain attracts thousands of pilgrims and tourists alike, for over a thousand years, Europeans living north of the Alps have made their way to the closest place in Europe where they could access the spiritual authority of an Apostle, Santiago de Compostela. In 2007, for example, over 100,000 people walked to Santiago de Compostela alone, there are over 42 million baptized, covering about 92% of the total population. There are 70 dioceses and archdioceses, in spite of strong traditions, most Spaniards do not participate regularly in religious services. A huge majority of young Spaniards, including those who self-identify as Catholic, ignore the Churchs stance on such as pre-marital sex. The total number of priests has shrunk from 24,300 in 1975 to 19,307 in 2005. Nuns also dropped 6. 9% to 54,160 in the period 2000-2005, according to the Eurobarometer 69, another independent source, only 3% of Spaniards consider religion as one of their three most important values, while the European mean is 7%. Sociological Research Center - Madrid, Spain, the Catholic Church in Spain, 1875-1998 Jedin, Hubert, and John Dolan, eds. History of the Church, Volume X, The Church in the Modern Age Lannon, the Catholic Church in Spain 1875-1975. Payne, Stanley G. Spanish Catholicism, An Historical Overview Relaño Pastor, Spanish Catholic Church in Franco Regime, A Marriage of Convenience, Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, Internationale Zeitschrift für Theologie und Geschichtswissenschaft 20#2 pp 275–287. Spain, in Tom Buchanan and Martin Conway, eds

18.
Christianity in Finland
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Most people in Finland are at least nominally members of a Christian church. Those who officially belong to one of the two churches have part of their taxes turned over to their church. People can also belong to one or more registered religious communities, other religions practiced in Finland include Islam and Judaism. Prior to Christianisation beginning the 11th century, Finnish paganism was the primary religion, most Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The number of members leaving the Church saw a rapidly increase in the fall of 2010. The second largest group - and a quickly growing one - of 25. 3% by the end of 2016 of the population is non-religious. A small minority belong to the Finnish Orthodox Church and to the Roman Catholic Church, other Protestant denominations are significantly smaller, as are the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and other non-Christian communities. The main Lutheran and Orthodox churches are national churches of Finland with special roles in ceremonies. Delegates to Lutheran Church assemblies are selected in church elections every four years, the majority of Lutherans attend church only for special occasions like Christmas, Easter, weddings and funerals. The Lutheran Church estimates that approximately 2 percent of its members attend church services weekly, the average number of church visits per year by church members is approximately two. According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll, 33% of Finnish citizens believe there is a God, 42% believe there is some sort of spirit or life force. 22% do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, according to Zuckerman, 28-60% of Finns are agnostics, atheists, or non-believers. In 2016, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland had about 4.0 million members, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland is an episcopal church, that is governed by bishops, with a very strong tradition of parish autonomy. It comprises nine dioceses with ten bishops and 408 independent parishes, the average parish has 7,000 members, with the smallest parishes comprising only a few hundred members and the largest tens of thousands. In recent years many parishes have united in order to safeguard their viability, in addition, municipal mergers have prompted parochial mergers as there may be only one parish, or cluster of parishes, in a given municipality. Traditionally, the church has played an important role in maintaining a population register in Finland. The vicars have maintained a record of persons born, married and deceased in their parishes since at least the 1660s. This system was in place for over 300 years, between 1919 and 1970, a separate Civil Register was maintained of those who had no affiliation with neither of the state churches

19.
Christianity in Italy
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Christianity in Italy is characterised by the predominance of the Catholic Church. The countrys Catholic patron saints are Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Siena, according to a 2006 survey by Eurispes, Catholics made up 87. 8% of the population, with 36. 8% describing themselves as observants. According to the poll in 2010, those percentages fell to 76. 5% and 24. 4%. Other sources give different accounts of Italys Islamic population, usually around 2%, Italy is home to the headquarters of the 1. The current Pope is Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who, Francis is the third non-Italian Pope in a row, after John Paul II from Poland and Benedict XVI from Germany. The Italian territory is divided in 225 Catholic dioceses and, according to Church statistics, most of which have been involved in social activities and have frequently supplied Italian politics with their members. The two churches include the majority of the population in Piana degli Albanesi, Sicily and Lungro, Calabria, immigration has brought to Italy new Christian communities, especially Orthodox Christians. Not surprisingly the Assemblies of God in Italy have the majority of their communities in the South, religious practice, especially church attendance, is still high in Italy, when compared to the average European country. The Italian National Institute of Statistics found in 2010 that 32. 0% of the went to church. The share of practising believers was higher in Southern and Insular Italy than the North-West, the North-East and the Centre

20.
Christianity in Denmark
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Christianity is the predominant religion of Denmark, with 77% of the Danish population estimated as adherents of the Folkekirken, Denmarks national Lutheran church. Aside from Lutheranism, there is a small Roman Catholic minority, as well as small Protestant denominations such as the Baptist Union of Denmark, Denmark is today a very secular country, but has a culture that is heavily influenced by Christianity. This proportion is down by 0. 9% as compared to the year and 1. 5% down compared to two years earlier. However, in fashion to the rest of Scandinavia, and also Britain. In addition, the number of people leaving the Church has been on the rise, in 201221,118 Danes left the Church, a small Baptist community has existed since the 1840s, and is represented by the Baptist Union of Denmark. The Union claimed 55 churches and 5,412 congregants in 2011, Reformed Protestantism is represented by four churches united in the Reformed Synod of Denmark. The German Reformed church also includes some Dutch, Swiss, Hungarian and American members, there is an Anglican church and fellowship in Copenhagen and smaller congregations of Anglicans and Episcopalians in many Danish cities. A2015 study estimates some 4,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, after the separation of the Church of Denmark from the Roman Catholic Church in 1536, Roman Catholicism remained illegal in the country for over three centuries. The Church was able to reestablish itself after the Constitution of 1849 granted religious freedom to the Kingdom, currently the country is covered by the Diocese of Copenhagen with 48 parishes in Denmark proper and two more in the Faeroe Islands and Greenland. There are nearly 40,000 Catholics in Denmark, though nearly a third are foreign born, nevertheless, ethnic Danes are still the largest group among the Churchs congregants. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been sending missionaries to Denmark since 14 June 1850, most of the early converts emigrated to the United States. There are currently over 4,500 Mormons in Denmark, there is a LDS temple in Copenhagen, known as the Copenhagen Denmark Temple. Church of Denmark or Den Danske Folkekirke

21.
Christianity in Ukraine
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The History of Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries of the apostolic church. Although separated into various denominations, most Ukrainian Christians share a common faith and this tradition is represented in Ukraine by both Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, which have been at various historic times closely aligned with Ukrainian national self-identity. Additionally, a significant body of Christians belong to the Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Christianity was most likely first introduced into the lands of present-day Ukraine by the Goths, who established the Chernyakhov culture in the 2nd century. However, the Gothic control over the area proved to be short-lived, as the Hunnic Empire swept into the area in the 4th century, Metropolitan Ilarion and other scholars have suggested that earlier Trypillian and Scythian religious practices, and hierarchical pantheism, influenced Christianitys later development in Ukraine. Saint Andrew the apostle is believed to have traveled up the shores of the Black Sea, to the area of present-day southern Ukraine. Belief in the visit of St. Andrew became widespread by the Middle Ages, and by 1621. Saint Titus, a disciple of St. Andrews, is venerated in Ukrainian churches. Although the Primary Chronicle refers to the apostle continuing his journey as far north as Novgorod, according to a 9th-century tradition, Pope Clement I was exiled to Chersonesos on the Crimean peninsula in 102, as was Pope Martin I in 655. Ostrogoths, who remained on present-day Ukrainian lands after the invasion of the Huns, a bishops seat had also existed since 868 across the Strait of Kerch, in the ancient city of Tmutarakan. The Polans and the Antes cultures, located so close to the Crimea, the relics of Pope St. Martin were allegedly retrieved by the Equal-to-apostles brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius, who passed through present-day Ukraine on their way to preach to the Khazars. In response to local disputes with clerics of the Latin Church, Cyril and Methodius appealed in person to the Bishop of Rome in 867 and their labors and request were met with approval, and their continued efforts planted the Christian faith into Ukrainian Rus. By 906, they had founded a diocese in Peremyshl, now Przemyśl in present-day Poland and their efforts, and those of their apostles, led to the translation of Christian Scriptures and service from Greek to Slavonic, and the eventual development of the modern Cyrillic alphabet. By the 9th century, it is known that the Slavic population of western Ukraine had accepted Christianity while under the rule of Great Moravia. Following the 860 assault on Constantinople by Rus forces under the command of Askold and Dir, returning to Kiev, the two actively championed Christianity for a period of 20 years, until they were murdered by the pagan Prince Oleg in the inter-princely rivalry for the Kiev throne. Patriarch Photios purportedly provided a bishop and priests from Constantinople to help in the Christianization of the Slavs, by 900, a church was already established in Kiev, St. Elijahs, modeled on a church of the same name in Constantinople. Christianity acceptance among the Rus nobility gained a vital proponent when Princess Olga and her baptism in 955 in either Kiev or Constantinople was a turning point in religious life of Rus but it was left to her grandson, Vladimir the Great, to make Kievan Rus a Christian state. Both Vladimir and Olga are venerated as the Equal-to-apostles saints by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Princess Olga of Kiev shortly after her baptism appealed to the Holy Roman emperor Otto the Great to send missionaries into Kievan Rus. Saint Adalbert, a Latin missionary bishop from Germany, was sent, but his missions, most of the group of Latin missionaries were slain by pagan forces sent by Olgas son, Prince Svyatoslav, who had taken the crown from his mother

22.
Christianity in Norway
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Christianity is the largest religion in Norway. Norway has historically been called a Christian country, a majority of the population are members of the Church of Norway with 76. 1% of the population officially belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway in 2013. At numerous times in history, Norway sent more missionaries per capita than any other country and this changed considerably from the 1960s. In 2004, only 12% of the population attended church services each month, citizens born in Norway to one or two Norwegian parents are automatically added to the list of Protestant Christians in Norway, and are required to sign out of the church. There are two categories kept in the books, medlemmer and tilhørige. Members technically have to be baptised, whereas tilhørige are to be out of the books if not baptised by the age of 18. Norwegian citizens tax funds are given to the Protestant Church until one registers as a member of religious group. In 1993, there were 4,981 churches and chapels in Norway, the conversion of Norway to Christianity began in 1000 AD. The raids on Ireland, Britain and the Frankish kingdoms had brought the Vikings in touch with Christianity, Haakon the Good of Norway who had grown up in England tried to introduce Christianity in the tenth century, but had met resistance from pagan leaders and soon abandoned the idea. Anglo-Saxon missionaries from England and Germany engaged in converting Norwegians to Christianity, however, they succeeded in converting Olaf I of Norway to Christianity. Olaf II of Norway had more success in his efforts to convert the population, the Christians in Norway often established churches or other holy sites at places that had previously been sacred under the Norse religion. The spread of conversion can be measured by burial sites as Pagans were buried with grave goods while Christians werent, Christianity had become well established in Norway by the middle of the 11th century and had become dominant by the middle of the 12th century. Stave churches were built of wood without the use of nails in the 13th century, early 21st century, Norway had one of the lowest church attendance rates in the world. Below is a table that compares Norway with other divisions in regular church attendance for the early 21st century. In contrast to 250,000 regular churchgoers in the whole of Norway in 2004,43,500 attend Lakewood Church in the United States each week, and 23,000 attend Hillsong Church in Australia each week. The U. S. state of Alabama has a roughly equal to that of Norway. Below is a table that compares Norway with other countries in importance of religion, the Church of Norway is the state church of Norway. The church confesses the Lutheran Christian faith and it has as its foundation the Christian Bible, the Apostles Creed, Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, Luthers Small Catechism and the Augsburg Confession

23.
Christianity in Georgia
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Today 82% of the population in Georgia practices Orthodox Christianity, primarily the Georgian Orthodox Church. According to Orthodox tradition, Christianity was first preached in Georgia by the Apostles Simon and it became the state religion of Kartli in 319. The conversion of Kartli to Christianity is credited to a Greek lady called St. Nino of Cappadocia, the Georgian Orthodox Church, originally part of the Church of Antioch, gained its autocephaly and developed its doctrinal specificity progressively between the 5th and 10th centuries. The Bible was also translated into Georgian in the 5th century, as was true elsewhere, the Christian church in Georgia was crucial to the development of a written language, and most of the earliest written works were religious texts. The Georgians new faith, which replaced pagan beliefs and Zoroastrianism, was to them permanently on the front line of conflict between the Islamic and Christian worlds. Georgians remained mostly Christian despite repeated invasions by Muslim powers, after Georgia was annexed by the Russian Empire, the Russian Orthodox Church took over the Georgian church in 1811. The Georgian church regained its autocephaly only when Russian rule ended in 1917, the Soviet regime that ruled Georgia from 1921 did not consider revitalization of the Georgian church an important goal, however. Soviet rule brought severe purges of the Georgian church hierarchy and frequent repression of Orthodox worship, as elsewhere in the Soviet Union, many churches were destroyed or converted into secular buildings. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, opposition leaders, especially Zviad Gamsakhurdia, after Ilia II became the patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the late 1970s, Georgian Orthodoxy experienced a revival. In 1988 Moscow permitted the patriarch to begin consecrating and reopening closed churches, the Georgian Orthodox Church has regained much power and full independence from the state since the restoration of Georgias independence in 1991. The Georgian Orthodox Church is one of the worlds most ancient Christian Churches and it is an autocephalous part of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Georgian Orthodoxy has been a religion in parts of Georgia since the 4th century. The Constitution of Georgia recognizes the role of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the countrys history. The relations between the State and the Church are regulated by the Constitutional Agreement of 2002, the Georgian Catholic Church has always, since the East-West Schism, been composed mainly of Latin Rite Catholics. Since the 18th century, there has also been a significant number of Armenian Rite Catholics, a small number, estimated at 500 worldwide, of Byzantine or Greek Rite Georgian Catholics do exist. However, no organized Georgian Greek Catholic Church ever existed, though, outside of Georgia, currently it is without a priest. Twin male and female religious orders of the Immaculate Conception were founded there in 1861, secularism and Irreligion in Georgia Freedom of religion in Georgia Rapp, Stephen. The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity, the Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity

24.
Christianity in Lithuania
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As per the 2011 census, the predominant religion in Lithuania is Christianity, with the largest confession being Roman Catholicism. In the early 21st century, about 77% of the population is Roman Catholic according to the 2011 census, there are also smaller groups of Orthodox Christians, Evangelical Lutherans, members of Reformed churches, other Protestants, Jews and Muslims as well as people of other faiths. Some elements of the ancient Lithuanian pagan religion survive in the countryside, Roman Catholicism has claimed the adherence of the majority of Lithuania since the Christianization of Lithuania in the 14th and 15th centuries. Political activity has continued after independence against socialism and liberalism, especially in ethical questions, eastern Orthodoxy claims 4. 1% of the population, mainly from the Russian minority. Protestants are 0. 8%, of which 0. 6% are Lutheran and 0. 2% are Reformed, according to Losch, the Lutherans were 3. 3% of the total population, they were mainly Germans in the Memel territory. There was also a tiny Reformed community which still persists, believers and clergy suffered greatly during the Soviet occupation, with many killed, tortured or deported to Siberia. Newly arriving evangelical churches have established missions in Lithuania since 1990, Protestants make up 0. 8% of the population, with 0. 56% belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lithuania. Lutheranism in Lithuania dates back to the 16th century, when it came mainly from the neighbouring German-controlled areas of Livonia, a Synod in Vilnius united the church in 1557. The parish network covered nearly all of the Grand Duchy, with centers in Vilnius, Kedainai, Biržai, Slucke. Small Protestant communities are dispersed throughout the northern and western parts of the country, the majority of Prussian Lithuanians living in East Prussia and in Memelland belonged to the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union. Most resettled in the West Germany after World War II along with the ethnic German inhabitants, since 1945, Lutheranism in Lithuania has declined largely due to the ongoing secularization that sweeps throughout Europe. The Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Church is a denomination it was founded in 1557. In the second half of the 16th century the Unitarians separated, the denomination has over 7000 members in 14 congregations. The center of Greek Catholic life in Lithuania is the Basilian Monastery, in the past, the monastery was multiethnic but now serves a mostly Ukrainian community. In Lithuania, Islam has a history unlike many other northern European countries. The medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth allowed Muslims, some of people from those lands were moved into ethnically Lithuanian lands, now the current Republic of Lithuania, mainly under rule of Grand Duke Vytautas. The Tatars, now referred to as Lithuanian Tatars, lost their language over time and now speak Lithuanian as natives, however, the Lithuanian Jewish community has roots that go back to before the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Before World War II, the Lithuanian Jewish population numbered some 160,000, Vilnius alone had a Jewish community of nearly 100,000, about 45% of the citys total population with over 110 synagogues and 10 yeshivot in the city

25.
Christianity in Portugal
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The most predominant religion in Portugal is Christianity, mainly is Catholicism. The educational and health systems were for a long time the Churchs preserve. Although Church and State are formally separate, the Catholic Church still receives certain privileges, statistically, religious practice increases with increasing age, the younger generations showing less evidence of religious practice than the older. As in most provinces of the Roman Empire, the religious beliefs, in the Portuguese case, those Pre-Roman religions where basically Proto-Celtic or Celtic, chief amongst them that of the Lusitanians. Jewish populations have existed in the area, going back to the Roman era or even before that, the Roman Provinces of Lusitania and of Gallaecia were first Christianized while part of the Roman Empire. During this period, Bracara Augusta became one of the most important episcopal centres, Christianity was solidified when the Suevi and the Visigoths — Germanic tribes already Christianized — came into the Iberian Peninsula in the fifth century. Early Visigoths followed the Arian heresy, but they joined Roman mainstream after the eighth century, the Archbishops of Braga retains the title of Primate of Portugal, and long claimed supremacy over the whole of the churches of Hispania. Braga had an important role in the Christianization of the whole Iberian Peninsula, the first known bishop of Braga, Paternus, lived in the end of the fourth century, although Saint Ovidius is sometimes considered one of the first bishops of this city. In the early century, Paulus Orosius, a friend of Saint Augustine, born in Braga. In the sixth century, a figure was Saint Martin of Braga. He also founded an important monastery near Braga, in Dumio, several Ecumenical Councils were held in Braga during this period, a sign of the religious importance of the city. By the same token, Christianity was the cry of those who rose up against the Moors. Hence, Christianity and the Catholic Church pre-dated the establishment of the Portuguese nation, under Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal and the founder of the Portuguese Kingdom, church and state were unified into a lasting and mutually beneficial partnership. To secure papal recognition of his country, Afonso declared Portugal a vassal state of the Pope, the King found the Church to be a useful ally as he drove the Moors towards the South. For its support of his policies, Afonso richly rewarded the Church by granting it vast lands and privileges in the conquered territories. The Church became the countrys largest landowner, and its power came to be equal to that of the nobility, the orders, and even, for a time. But Afonso also asserted his supremacy over the Church, a supremacy that — with various ups, although relations between the Portuguese State and the Catholic Church were generally amiable and stable, their relative power fluctuated. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Church enjoyed both riches and power stemming from its role in the reconquest and its identification with early Portuguese nationalism

26.
Christianity in Ireland
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Christianity is and has been the largest religion in Ireland. Most Christian churches are organized on a basis, including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland,84. 2% of the population adheres to the Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism in Ireland is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. The Catholic Church in Ireland serves Catholics in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland under the leadership of Pope Francis and the Conference of Irish Bishops. In the Republic of Ireland,87. 4% of the citizens were baptised Catholic as infants while the figure for Northern Ireland is 43. 8%. Christianity had arrived in Ireland by the early 5th century, and spread through the works of early missionaries such as Palladius, the Church is organised into four provinces, however, these are not coterminous with the modern civil provincial divisions. The church is led by four archbishops and twenty-three bishops, however, because there have been amalgamations and absorptions, for instance, the diocese of Cashel has been joined with the diocese of Emly, Waterford with Lismore, and Ardagh with Clonmacnoise. The bishop of Galway is also the Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora, there are 1,087 parishes, a few of which are governed by administrators, the remainder by parish priests. There about 3,000 secular clergy—parish priests, administrators, curates, chaplains, the total number of the regular clergy is about 700. They are engaged either in teaching or in giving missions, Irish travellers have traditionally adopted a very particular attitude to the Catholic church, with a focus on figures such as healing priests. More generally a tradition of visions continues, often outside of Church sanction, the majority of the people of Northern Ireland are recorded as members of the various Protestant churches such as the Presbyterian Church, Church of Ireland, Methodist Church and several others. While the Roman Catholic Church is the largest single denomination in either jurisdiction, in the Republic of Ireland, approximately 3% were recorded as members of various Protestant. The proportion was more than 10% in 1891 – a drop to less than a third of the previous percentage, the percentage in 2011 is almost 5%. In 1861, only the west coast and Kilkenny had less than 6% Protestant population, Dublin and two of the border counties had over 20% Protestant. By 1991, however, all counties had fewer than 6% Protestants, there are no counties in the Republic of Ireland which have experienced a rise in the relative Protestant population over the period 1861 to 1991. The counties which retain the highest proportion of Protestants tend to be those which started off with a large proportion, in Northern Ireland, only counties Londonderry, Tyrone and Armagh have experienced a significant loss of relative Protestant population, though at a lesser rate than in the Republic. The Church of Ireland is a province of the Anglican Communion, operating across the island of Ireland. The reformed Church in Ireland then became the church, assuming possession of most church property

27.
Christianity in Serbia
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Christianity is the predominant religion in Serbia. The Constitution of Serbia defines it as a state with guaranteed religious freedom. Orthodox Christians with 6,079,396 comprise 84. 5% of countrys population, the Serbian Orthodox Church is the largest and traditional church of the country, adherents of which are overwhelmingly Serbs. Other Orthodox Christian communities in Serbia include Montenegrins, Romanians, Vlachs, Saints Florus and Laurus are venerated as Christian martyrs, and lived in the 2nd century in Ulpiana, in modern Serbia. According to traditions, they were brothers from Constantinople who were employed to build a pagan temple. They gave their salaries to the poor and are said to have cured the son of Mamertin, the pagan priest. The temple was reconstructed into a Church, which prompted local pagans to kill the 300 Christians, in 535 a new archdiocese of Justiniana Prima is formed which southern Serbia becomes part of. The Serbs were baptised during the reign of Heraclius by elders of Rome according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his annals, in 733, Leo III attaches Illyricum to Patriarch Anastasius of Constantinople. A Serbian bishopric may have founded in Stari Ras in 871 by Serbian Knez Mutimir. The adherence is evident in the tradition of names in the next generation of Serbian monarchs and nobles, Petar Gojniković, Stefan Mutimirović. Mutimir maintained the communion with the Eastern Church when Pope John VIII invited him to recognize the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Sirmium, the Serbs and Bulgarians adopt the Old Slavonic liturgy instead of the Greek. A Seal of Strojimir, the brother of Mutimir, was bought by the Serbian state in an auction in Germany, the seal has a Patriarchal cross in the center and Greek inscriptions that say, Strojimir and God, Help Serbia. In 1019, the Archbishopric of Ohrid is formed after the Byzantines conquers the First Bulgarian Empire, the Greek language replaces the Slavic. Among the first bishops are Leontius, Cyril, Euthemius and Kalinik and it joined the autocephalous Archbishopric of Zica in 1219, at the time of Saint Sava. The Diocese of Prizren is mentioned in 1019, in the first charter of Basil II, most of the citizens of Serbia are adherents of the Serbian Orthodox Church, while the Romanian Orthodox Church is also present in parts of Vojvodina inhabited by ethnic Romanian minority. Besides Serbs, other adherents of Orthodox Christianity include, Romanians, Macedonians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Russians, Greeks, however, the conversion of the south Slavs from paganism to Christianity took place before the Great Schism, the split between the Greek East and the Catholic West. After the Schism, those who lived under the Orthodox sphere of influence became Orthodox, some ethnologists consider that the distinct Serb and Croat identities relate to religion rather than ethnicity. With the arrival of the Ottoman Empire, some Serbs and Croats converted to Islam and this was particularly, but not wholly, so in Bosnia

28.
Christianity in Poland
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While there are a number of religious communities operating in Poland, the majority of its population adheres to Christianity. Within this, the largest grouping is the Roman Catholic Church - with 92. 2% of Poles in 2011 identifying as Roman Catholic, 65% of Polish believers attend church services on a regular basis. It is particularly regarded by its members as a repository of Polish heritage, Poland lays claim to having the highest proportion of Catholic citizens than any country in Europe except for Malta. The rest of the population mainly of Eastern Orthodox, various Protestant churches. There are about 85,000 Greek Catholics in Poland, other religions practiced in Poland, by less than 1% of the population, include Islam and Judaism and to a lesser extent Hinduism and Buddhism. From the beginning of its statehood, different religions coexisted in Poland, with the baptism of Poland in 966, the old pagan religions were gradually eradicated over the next few centuries during the Christianization of Poland. By the 13th century Catholicism had become the dominant religion throughout the country, nevertheless, Christian Poles coexisted with a significant Jewish segment of the population. The Protestant movement gained a significant following in Poland, and while Catholicism retained a dominant position, the resulting counter-reformation movement eventually succeeded in reducing the scope for tolerance by the late 17th and early 18th century - as evidenced by events such as the Tumult of Torun. When Poland lost its independence to foreign invaders in 1795, Poles were subjected to discrimination in the expanded Germany. Prior to Second World War there were 3,500,000 Jews in the Polish Second Republic, about 10% of the general population, between the 1939 German invasion of Poland, and the end of World War II, over 90% of Jewry in Poland perished. The Holocaust, also known as Shoah took the lives of more than three million Jews in Poland, only a small percentage managed to survive in the German-occupied Poland or successfully escaped east into the territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, beyond the reach of the Nazis. According to Polands Constitution freedom of religion is ensured to everyone and this registration is not necessary, however, it is beneficial when it comes to serving the freedom of religious practice laws. This native Slavic religion is promoted also by the Native Faith Association, there are roughly 125 faith groups and other minor religions registered in Poland. Data provided by Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Polands Central Statistical Office

29.
Christianity in Iceland
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Starting in the 1530s, Iceland, originally Roman Catholic and under the Danish crown, formally became Lutheran under the Icelandic Reformation, which culminated in 1550. As such, Iceland has a state Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, the state church is supported by the government, but all registered religions received support from a church tax paid by taxpayers over the age of 16 years. According to government records, the population is at present overwhelmingly Lutheran, although Catholics, the largest non-Christian religious grouping is Ásatrú. The earliest inhabitants of Iceland were Irish monks, known as Papar, however, the small population was soon overwhelmed by migrations of Scandinavians, most of whom practiced what can loosely be called Germanic paganism, in the eighth and ninth centuries. The Christianisation of Iceland, like the rest of Scandinavia, was a process, beginning before official conversion. Particularly through the influence of missionaries and pressure from the Norwegian king. During the Reformation, Iceland adopted Lutheranism in place of its earlier Roman Catholicism and this led to resistance, which escalated nearly to the point of civil war. Jón Arason and Ögmundur Pálsson, the Catholic bishops of Skálholt and Hólar respectively, opposition to the Reformation effectively ended in 1550 when Jón was captured after being defeated in the Battle of Sauðafell by loyalist forces under Daði Guðmundsson. Jón and his two sons were beheaded in Skálholt on November 7,1550. With Lutheranism firmly in place, Catholicism was outlawed, and Catholic church property was assumed by Icelands rulers and those Catholics who refused to convert eventually fled, generally to Scotland. No Catholic priest was permitted be present in Iceland for more than three centuries, the Catholic Church resumed missionary activities in Iceland from the 1850s, and today about 11,500 Icelanders belong to that faith. Starting in the century, Pietism rose in importance due to activity from Denmark. The pietists expanded printing and literature in Iceland, however, education and literacy for the Pietists was primarily or solely to have a religious function and they discouraged anything without religious meaning. This led to encouraging a certain dourness to Iceland by discouraging dancing or other entertainment, about 281,000 Icelanders are members of Christian congregations, of whom most are members of the Church of Iceland. According to a 2004 survey 69. 3% of the population claimed to be religious. Of those who said they were religious,76.3 per cent said that they were Christian, there is a state church and the government pays the salaries of the 140 ministers in it. The state church is responsible for running all cemeteries and people of any belief or none can be buried in them. If they are not registered the money goes into the general revenue, people are free to belong to unrecognized religious or philosophical organizations

30.
Christianity in Malta
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In the small Mediterranean island nation of Malta the predominant religion is Roman Catholicism. The Church in Malta is described in the Book of Acts to have founded by its patrons Saint Paul the Apostle and Saint Publius. According to tradition, Publius, the Roman Governor of Malta at the time of Saint Pauls shipwreck, after ruling the Maltese Church for 31 years, Publius was transferred to the See of Athens in 90 AD, where he was martyred in 125 AD. The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon record that in 451 AD and it is also known that in 501 AD, a certain Constantinus, Episcopus Melitenensis, was present at the Fifth General Council. In 588 Tucillus, Miletinae civitatis episcopus, was deposed by Pope Gregory I, the last recorded Bishop of Malta before the Arab invasion of the Islands was a Greek by the name of Manas, who was subsequently incarcerated at Palermo, Sicily. Over the years, the power of the Knights declined, their reign ended when Napoleon Bonapartes fleet arrived in 1789, as a ruse, Napoleon asked for safe harbor to resupply his ships, and then turned his guns against his hosts once safely inside Valletta. He then sailed for Egypt leaving a garrison in Malta. Since the Order had also been growing unpopular with the local Maltese and this illusion did not last long. Within months the French were closing convents and seizing church treasures, the Maltese people rebelled, and the French garrison of General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois retreated into Valletta. After several failed attempts by the locals to retake Valletta, they asked the British for assistance, rear Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson decided on a total blockade, and in 1800 the French garrison surrendered. Historically part of the Diocese of Malta, Gozitans brought forward several petitions for the creation of an independent diocese, including in 1798, during the French occupation, a third petition, brought directly to Pope Pius IX in 1855, met with success. Instrumental in this effort were a young priest named Don Pietro Pace, who would years later serve as Bishop of Gozo. The British Colonial Office signalled its approval in October 1860, in 1863, Archpriest Michele Francesco Buttigieg was elected Auxiliary Bishop of Malta with instructions to reside in Gozo. One year later, on September 16,1864, the Pope issued a Bull entitled Singulari Amore, which decreed that the Islands of Gozo and Comino were separated from the Diocese of Malta. On September 22,1864, Bishop Buttigieg was elected the first bishop of Gozo, with the Matrice in Victoria, dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, in 1814, Malta became part of the British Empire in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. British rule lasted 150 years until 1964 when Malta gained independence, British rule brought the first sizeable population of members of the Anglican Church and Protestant denominations in the form of civil servants and retirees. British rule was typified by a condition of religious tolerance, St. Paul is venerated as the patron saint of Malta. A number of parishes throughout Malta and Gozo are dedicated to him, including, the Cathedral Church at Mdina, the Collegiates of Rabat and Valletta, and the parishes of Ħal-Safi and Munxar

31.
Christianity in Armenia
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As of 2011 Most of Armenians are nominally Christians and members of Armenias own church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is one of the oldest Christian churches. It was founded in the 1st century AD, and in 301 AD became the first branch of Christianity to become a state religion. However, in times, and especially after the Soviet period, only one third of Armenians practise Christianity. In the 21st century, the largest minority Christian churches in the country are composed of new converts to Protestant and non-trinitarian Christianity, due to the countrys ethnic homogeneity, non-Christian religions such as Yazidism and Islam have few adherents, particularly since the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The country has an area of 11,500 square miles, approximately 98 percent of the population is ethnic Armenian. Armenians have a strong cultural connection to the Armenian Apostolic Church. About 92. 5% of citizens belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church has its spiritual center at the Etchmiadzin Cathedral. The head of the church is Catholicos Karekin II, Yazidis are concentrated primarily in agricultural areas around Mount Aragats, northwest of the capital Yerevan. They live in 19 villages in the Aragatsotn Province, two villages in the Armavir Province, and one village in the Ararat Province, Armenian Catholics live mainly in the northern region, in seven villages in the Shirak Province and six villages in the Lori Province. Most Jews, Mormons, Bahais, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Western Catholic Christians reside in the capital Yerevan, Yerevan also has a small community of Muslims, including ethnic Kurds, Iranians, and temporary residents from the Middle East. Molokans live in 10 villages in the Lori Province, two villages in the Shirak Province, and two villages in the Gegharkunik Province, foreign missionary groups are active in the country. The Constitution as amended in 2005 provides for freedom of religion, the law places some restrictions on the religious freedom of religious groups other than the Armenian Church. The Law on Freedom of Conscience establishes the separation of church and state, Christianity was first introduced to this area by the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus in the 1st century AD. Before this, the dominant religion was Armenian paganism, under the influence of Zoroastrianism. Hetanism is a neo-ethnic religion movement in Armenia, the movement traces its origins back to the work of the early-20th-century political philosopher and revolutionary Garegin Nzhdeh and his doctrine of tseghakron. In 1991, it was institutionalized by the armenologist Slak Kakosyan into the Order of the Children of Ari, the doctrine and mythology of the Hetan movement is codified into a book, the Ukhtagirk, written by Kakosyan himself. The movement is associated to Armenian nationalism. It finds some support from nationalist political parties of Armenia, particularly the Republican Party of Armenia and the Union of Armenian Aryans

32.
Christianity in Romania
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Romania is a secular state, and it has no state religion. However, Romania is one of the most religious countries in the European Union, the Romanian state officially recognizes 18 religions and denominations. 81. 04% of the stable population identified as Eastern Orthodox in the 2011 census. Other Christian denominations include Roman Catholicism, Greek Catholicism, Calvinism and this amounts to approximately 92% of the population identifying as Christian. Romania also has a small but historically significant Muslim minority, concentrated in Northern Dobruja, according to the 2011 census data, there are also approximately 3,500 Jews, around 21,000 atheists and about 19,000 people not identifying with any religion. The 2011 census numbers are based on a population of 20,121,641 people. Eastern Orthodoxy is the largest religious denomination in Romania, numbering 16,307,004 according to the 2011 census, the rate of church attendance is, however, significantly lower. According to the 2011 census, there are 870,774 Roman Catholics belonging to the Latin Church in Romania, making up 4. 33% of the population. The largest ethnic groups are Hungarians, Romanians, Germans, and Roma, as well as a majority of the countrys Slovaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Italians, Czechs, Poles, and Csangos. According to the 2011 census, there are 150,593 Greek Catholics in Romania, the majority of Greek Catholics live in the northern part of Transylvania. Most are Romanians, with the remainder mostly Hungarians or Roma, the dispute over the figure is included in the United States Department of State report on religious freedom in Romania. The Romanian Orthodox Church continues to claim many of the Romanian Greek Catholic Churchs properties, according to the 2011 census, Protestants make up 5. 95% of the total population. In 1930, prior to World War II, they constituted approximately 8. 8% of the Romanian population, the largest denominations included in this figure are the Reformed and the Pentecostals. The majority of Calvinists and Unitarians have their services in Hungarian, not to be confused with any of the above is the Evangelical Church of Romania, an unrelated Protestant denomination. According to the 2011 census,64,337 people, approx,0. 3% of the total population, indicated that their religion was Islam. The majority of the Romanian Muslims belong to the Sunni Islam, 97% of the Romanian Muslims are residents of the two counties forming Northern Dobruja, eighty-five percent live in Constanța County, and twelve percent in Tulcea County. The remaining Muslims live in cities like Bucharest, Brăila, Călărași, Galați, Giurgiu, ethnically, most of them are Tatars, followed by Turks, Albanians, Muslim Roma, and immigrants from the Middle East. Since 2007, there are Indonesian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani workers coming to Romania, in Romania there are about 80 mosques

33.
Christianity in Vatican City
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Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome – the Pope, the highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has full ownership, exclusive dominion, within Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peters Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the worlds most famous paintings and sculptures, the unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications. The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, the name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. Vatican is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the area the Romans called vaticanus ager. The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City officially uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ, this is used in documents by not just the Holy See. The name Vatican was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for an area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers that was completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply. Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome had long considered sacred. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby, the particularly low quality of Vatican water, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant and this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down, opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Peters in the first half of the 4th century, the Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery

34.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin

35.
Religion in Europe
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Religion in Europe has been a major influence on todays society art, culture, philosophy and law. The largest religion in Europe is Christianity, three countries in Southeastern Europe have Muslim majorities. Ancient European religions included veneration for deities such as Zeus, modern revival movements of these religions include Heathenism, Rodnovery, Romuva, Druidry, Wicca, and others. Smaller religions include Indian religions, Judaism, and some East Asian religions, which are found in their largest groups in Britain, France, little is known about the prehistoric religion of Neolithic Europe. Bronze and Iron Age religion in Europe as elsewhere was predominantly polytheistic, the Roman Empire officially adopted Christianity in AD380. During the Early Middle Ages, most of Europe underwent Christianization, at all times, traditions of folk religion existed largely independent from official denomination or dogmatic theology. The latest history brought increased secularisation, and religious pluralism, European countries have experienced a decline in church membership and church attendance. A relevant example of ongoing trend is Sweden where the church of Sweden, previously the state-church until 2000, surveys showed this had dropped to 72. 9% by 2008 and 64. 6% by 2014. Moreover, in the 2005 Eurobarometer Poll 23% of the Swedish population said that dont believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force. During 2008–2009, a Gallup poll asked in several countries the question Is religion important in daily life. The table and map below shows percentage of people who answered Yes to the question, according to a recent study, 47% of French people declared themselves as agnostics in 2003. This situation is often called Post-Christian Europe, a decrease in religiousness and church attendance in Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden has been noted, despite a concurrent increase in some countries Greece. The Eurobarometer poll must be taken with caution, however, as there are discrepancies between it and national census results. Romania, one of the most religious countries in Europe, witnessed an increase in the number of atheists between 2002 and 2011, as revealed by the most recent national census. The following is a list of European countries ranked by religiosity, based on rates of belief, according to the Eurobarometer Poll 2010. The 2010 Eurobarometer Poll asked whether the person there is a God, believes there is some sort of spirit or life force, or doesnt believe there is any sort of spirit. The decrease in theism is illustrated in the 1981 and 1999 according to the World Values Survey, some countries nevertheless show increase of theism over the period, Italy 84. 1%,87. 8%, Denmark 57. 8%,62. 1%. For a comprehensive study on Europe, see Mattei Dogans Religious Beliefs in Europe, according to new polls about Religiosity in the European Union in 2012 by Eurobarometer, Christianity is the largest religion in the European Union accounting 72% of EU citizens

36.
Pauline Epistles
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The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the 13 New Testament books which have the name Paul as the first word, hence claiming authorship by Paul the Apostle. Among these letters are some of the earliest extant Christian documents and they provide an insight into the beliefs and controversies of early Christianity and as part of the canon of the New Testament they are foundational texts for both Christian theology and ethics. The Pauline epistles are usually placed between the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles in modern editions. Most Greek manuscripts, however, place the General epistles first, in the order they appear in the New Testament, the Pauline epistles are, This ordering is remarkably consistent in the manuscript tradition, with very few deviations. The evident principle of organization is descending length of the Greek text, the only anomaly is that Galatians precedes the slightly longer Ephesians. In modern editions, the formally anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews is placed at the end of Pauls letters and this practice was popularized through the 4th century Vulgate by Jerome, who was aware of ancient doubts about its authorship, and is also followed in most medieval Byzantine manuscripts. With hardly any exceptions, though, the manuscripts do include Hebrews somewhere among Pauls letters. The placement of Hebrews among the Pauline epistles is less consistent in the manuscripts, omitted, F and G In all of these epistles besides Epistle to the Hebrews, Paul does claim to be the author and writer. However, the letters may have been forgeries, as that seems to have been a problem among the early church as a whole. “The Problem of Anonymity and Pseudonymity in Christian Literature of the First Two Centuries. ”Journal of Theological Studies 12, bahr, Gordon J. “Paul and Letter Writing in the First Century. ”Idem, “The Subscriptions in the Pauline Letters. ”Journal of Biblical Literature 2, 27–41. Journal of Biblical Literature 107, 469–94, craig A. Evans and Stanley E. Porter. Dan O. Via, Jr. Philadelphia, Fortress,1988, “‘Girls Trained in Beautiful Writing’, Female Scribes in Roman Antiquity and Early Christianity. ”Journal of Early Christian Studies 6.4, 629–46. A Theological Introduction to Pauls Letters, “Ancient Amanuenses and the Pauline Epistles. ”New Dimensions in New Testament Study. Richard N. Longenecker and Merrill C, idem, “On the Form, Function, and Authority of the New Testament Letters. ”D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge. Paul the Letter-Writer, His World, His Options, His Skills, the Secretary in the Letters of Paul. Idem, “The Codex and the Early Collection of Paul’s Letters. ”Bulletin for Bulletin Research 8, idem, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing, Secretaries, Composition, and Collection. “Composition and Dictation in New Testament Books. ”Journal of Theological Studies 18, wall, Robert W. “Introduction to Epistolary Literature. ”The Marcionite Prologues to the Pauline Epistles Chronological Order of Pauls Letters Chronology of Pauls Letters

37.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens

38.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor

39.
Pew Research Center
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The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American fact tank, which is based in Washington, D. C. It provides information on issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States. It also conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis, Pew Research Center does not take explicit policy positions, and is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. In 1990 the Times Mirror Company founded the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press as a project, tasked with conducting polls on politics. Andrew Kohut became its director in 1993, and The Pew Charitable Trusts became its sponsor in 1996. In 2004, the trust established the Pew Research Center in Washington, in 2013, Kohut stepped down as president and became founding director, and Alan Murray became the second president of the center. In October 2014, Michael Dimock, a 14-year veteran of the Pew Research Center, was named president, the Pew Research Center is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501 organization and a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. Some projects are funded by the Evangelical Protestant John Templeton Foundation, the Centers research is divided into seven areas. Politics & Policy Journalism & Media Internet, Science & Tech Religion & Public Life Hispanic Trends Global Attitudes & Trends Social & Demographic Trends Official website The Pew Charitable Trusts

40.
Demographics of Europe
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Figures for the population of Europe vary according to which definition of European boundaries is used. The population within the physical geographical boundaries was 740 million in 2010 according to the United Nations. Population growth is low, and median age comparatively high in relation to the worlds other continents. Since the Renaissance, Europe has had an influence in culture, economics. Its demography is important not only historically, but also in understanding current international relations, some current and past issues in European demography have included religious emigration, ethnic relations, economic immigration, a declining birth rate and an ageing population. In some countries, such as Poland, access to abortion is currently limited, in the past, such restrictions and also restrictions on artificial birth control were commonplace throughout Europe. 330,000,000 people lived in Europe in 1916, in 2010 the population of Europe was estimated to be 740 million according to the United Nations, which was slightly less than 11% of world population. The precise figure depends on the definition of the geographic extent of Europe. The population of the European Union was 508 million as of 2015, non-EU countries situated in Europe in their entirety account for another 94 million. Five transcontinental countries have a total of 240 million people, of which about half reside in Europe proper. As it stands now, around 12% of the people live in Europe. The sub-replacement fertility and high life expectancy in most European states mean a declining and aging population as it isnt offset by the current immigration level and this situation expected to be a challenge for their economies, political and social institutions. Countries on the edges of Europe, except for southern Europe, have generally stronger growth than Central European counterparts, albania and Ireland have strong growth, hitting over 1% annually. Cyprus Mirroring their mostly sub-replacement fertility and high life expectancy, European countries tend to have older populations overall and they had nine of the top ten highest median ages in national populations in 2005. Only Japan had an older population, over the last several decades, religious practice has been on the decline in a process of secularization. European countries have experienced a decline in attendance, as well as a decline in the number of people professing a belief in a god. The Eurobarometer poll must be taken with caution, however, as there are discrepancies between it and national census results, the 2011 census showed a dramatic reduction to less than 60% of the population regarding themselves as Christian. Despite its decline, Christianity is still the largest religion in Europe, according to a survey published in 2010,76. 2% of Europeans identified themselves as Christians

41.
Christians
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A Christian is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian derives from the Koine Greek word Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach, while there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance. The term Christian is also used as an adjective to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a sense all that is noble, and good. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, by 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey Christianity will remain the worlds largest religion in 2050, about half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant. Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the worlds Christians, other Christian groups make up the remainder. Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories,280 million Christian live as a minority. In the Greek Septuagint, christos was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ, in other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are likewise derived from the Greek, such as Chrétien in French and Cristiano in Spanish. The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26,28, where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4,16, which believers, Yet if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames, in the Annals he relates that by vulgar appellation commonly called Christians and identifies Christians as Neros scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome. Another term for Christians which appears in the New Testament is Nazarenes which is used by the Jewish lawyer Tertullus in Acts 24, the Hebrew equivalent of Nazarenes, Notzrim, occurs in the Babylonian Talmud, and is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian. A wide range of beliefs and practices is found across the world among those who call themselves Christian, denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of Christianity. Most Baptists and fundamentalists, for example, would not acknowledge Mormonism or Christian Science as Christian, in fact, the nearly 77 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are a diverse pluribus of Christianities that are far from any collective unity. The identification of Jesus as the Messiah is not accepted by Judaism, the term for a Christian in Hebrew is נוּצְרי, a Talmudic term originally derived from the fact that Jesus came from the Galilean village of Nazareth, today in northern Israel. Adherents of Messianic Judaism are referred to in modern Hebrew as יְהוּדִים מָשִׁיחַיים, the term Nasara rose to prominence in July 2014, after the Fall of Mosul to the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The nun or ن— the first letter of Nasara—was spray-painted on the property of Christians ejected from the city, where there is a distinction, Nasrani refers to people from a Christian culture and Masihi is used by Christians themselves for those with a religious faith in Jesus. In some countries Nasrani tends to be used generically for non-Muslim Western foreigners, another Arabic word sometimes used for Christians, particularly in a political context, is Ṣalībī from ṣalīb which refers to Crusaders and has negative connotations

42.
Catholics
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The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.27 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilisation, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed. Its central administration is located in the Vatican City, enclaved in Rome, the Catholic Church is notable within Western Christianity for its sacred tradition and seven sacraments. It teaches that it is the one church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christs apostles. The Catholic Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as such as mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders. Among the sacraments, the one is the Eucharist, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest the sacrificial bread and wine become the body, the Catholic Church practises closed communion, with only baptised members in a state of grace ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Queen of Heaven and is honoured in numerous Marian devotions. The Catholic Church has influenced Western philosophy, science, art and culture, Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world, from the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its doctrines on sexuality, its refusal to ordain women and its handling of sexual abuse cases. Catholic was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in the letter from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans, written about 110 AD. In the Catechetical Discourses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the name Catholic Church was used to distinguish it from other groups that call themselves the church. The use of the adjective Roman to describe the Church as governed especially by the Bishop of Rome became more widespread after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages. Catholic Church is the name used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the pope, in parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both, additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services

43.
Christian
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A Christian is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian derives from the Koine Greek word Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach, while there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance. The term Christian is also used as an adjective to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a sense all that is noble, and good. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, by 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey Christianity will remain the worlds largest religion in 2050, about half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant. Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the worlds Christians, other Christian groups make up the remainder. Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories,280 million Christian live as a minority. In the Greek Septuagint, christos was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ, in other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are likewise derived from the Greek, such as Chrétien in French and Cristiano in Spanish. The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26,28, where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4,16, which believers, Yet if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames, in the Annals he relates that by vulgar appellation commonly called Christians and identifies Christians as Neros scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome. Another term for Christians which appears in the New Testament is Nazarenes which is used by the Jewish lawyer Tertullus in Acts 24, the Hebrew equivalent of Nazarenes, Notzrim, occurs in the Babylonian Talmud, and is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian. A wide range of beliefs and practices is found across the world among those who call themselves Christian, denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of Christianity. Most Baptists and fundamentalists, for example, would not acknowledge Mormonism or Christian Science as Christian, in fact, the nearly 77 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are a diverse pluribus of Christianities that are far from any collective unity. The identification of Jesus as the Messiah is not accepted by Judaism, the term for a Christian in Hebrew is נוּצְרי, a Talmudic term originally derived from the fact that Jesus came from the Galilean village of Nazareth, today in northern Israel. Adherents of Messianic Judaism are referred to in modern Hebrew as יְהוּדִים מָשִׁיחַיים, the term Nasara rose to prominence in July 2014, after the Fall of Mosul to the terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The nun or ن— the first letter of Nasara—was spray-painted on the property of Christians ejected from the city, where there is a distinction, Nasrani refers to people from a Christian culture and Masihi is used by Christians themselves for those with a religious faith in Jesus. In some countries Nasrani tends to be used generically for non-Muslim Western foreigners, another Arabic word sometimes used for Christians, particularly in a political context, is Ṣalībī from ṣalīb which refers to Crusaders and has negative connotations

44.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa

45.
Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa

46.
Protestant Reformation
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The period is usually considered to have begun with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Luther in 1517 to the Thirty Years War and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura, the initial movement within Germany diversified, and other reform impulses arose independently of Luther. The spread of Gutenbergs printing press provided the means for the dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The largest groups were the Lutherans and Calvinists, Lutheran churches were founded mostly in Germany, the Baltics and Scandinavia, while the Reformed ones were founded in Switzerland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Scotland. The new movement influenced the Church of England decisively after 1547 under Edward VI and Elizabeth I, there were also reformation movements throughout continental Europe known as the Radical Reformation, which gave rise to the Anabaptist, Moravian and other Pietistic movements. The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent, much work in battling Protestantism was done by the well-organised new order of the Jesuits. In general, Northern Europe, with the exception of most of Ireland, southern Europe remained Roman Catholic, while Central Europe was a site of a fierce conflict, culminating in the Thirty Years War, which left it devastated. The oldest Protestant churches, such as the Unitas Fratrum and Moravian Church, the later Protestant Churches generally date their doctrinal separation from the Roman Catholic Church to the 16th century. The Reformation began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church, by priests who opposed what they perceived as false doctrines and ecclesiastic malpractice. They especially objected to the teaching and the sale of indulgences, and the abuses thereof, and to simony, the reformers saw these practices as evidence of the systemic corruption of the Churchs hierarchy, which included the pope. Unrest due to the Great Schism of Western Christianity excited wars between princes, uprisings among the peasants, and widespread concern over corruption in the Church, New perspectives came from John Wycliffe at Oxford University and from Jan Hus at the Charles University in Prague. Hus rejected indulgences and adopted a doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, the Roman Catholic Church officially concluded this debate at the Council of Constance by condemning Hus, who was executed by burning despite a promise of safe-conduct. Wycliffe was posthumously condemned as a heretic and his corpse exhumed and burned in 1428, the Council of Constance confirmed and strengthened the traditional medieval conception of church and empire. The council did not address the national tensions or the theological tensions stirred up during the century and could not prevent schism. Pope Sixtus IV established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead, Pope Alexander VI was one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes. He was the father of seven children, including Lucrezia and Cesare Borgia, in response to papal corruption, particularly the sale of indulgences, Luther wrote The Ninety-Five Theses. The Reformation was born of Luthers dual declaration – first, the discovering of Jesus and salvation by faith alone, the Protestant reformers were unanimous in agreement and this understanding of prophecy furnished importance to their deeds. It was the point and the battle cry that made the Reformation nearly unassailable

47.
Protestant
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Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict of the Diet of Speyer condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, Protestants reject the notion of papal supremacy and deny the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, but disagree among themselves regarding the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Five solae summarize the reformers basic differences in theological beliefs, in the 16th century, Lutheranism spread from Germany into Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states, and Iceland. Reformed churches were founded in Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland and France by such reformers as John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, the political separation of the Church of England from Rome under King Henry VIII brought England and Wales into this broad Reformation movement. Protestants developed their own culture, which made major contributions in education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy and the arts, some Protestant denominations do have a worldwide scope and distribution of membership, while others are confined to a single country. A majority of Protestants are members of a handful of families, Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism. Nondenominational, evangelical, charismatic, independent and other churches are on the rise, and constitute a significant part of Protestant Christianity. Six princes of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of fourteen Imperial Free Cities, the edict reversed concessions made to the Lutherans with the approval of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V three years earlier. During the Reformation, the term was used outside of the German politics. The word evangelical, which refers to the gospel, was more widely used for those involved in the religious movement. Nowadays, this word is still preferred among some of the historical Protestant denominations in the Lutheran and Calvinist traditions in Europe, above all the term is used by Protestant bodies in the German-speaking area, such as the EKD. In continental Europe, an Evangelical is either a Lutheran or a Calvinist, the German word evangelisch means Protestant, and is different from the German evangelikal, which refers to churches shaped by Evangelicalism. The English word evangelical usually refers to Evangelical Protestant churches, and it traces its roots back to the Puritans in England, where Evangelicalism originated, and then was brought to the United States. Protestantism as a term is now used in contradistinction to the other major Christian traditions, i. e. Roman Catholicism. Initially, Protestant became a term to mean any adherent to the Reformation movement in Germany and was taken up by Lutherans. Even though Martin Luther himself insisted on Christian or Evangelical as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ, French and Swiss Protestants preferred the word reformed, which became a popular, neutral and alternative name for Calvinists

48.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians

49.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed

50.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world

Christianity in Turkey
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The percentage of Christians in Turkey fell from 19 percent in 1914 to 2. Today there are more than 160,000 people of different Christian denominations, There is also a small group of ethnic Orthodox-Christian Turks who follow the Greek Orthodox or Syrian Orthodox church. They are often confused with ethnic Greeks, some of them actually have a Gree

1.
Armenian church in Vakifli, Turkey

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Saffron Monastery, near Mardin, Turkey

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Saint Andrew in Krisei

Christianity in Azerbaijan
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Christianity in Azerbaijan is a minority religion. Christians who estimated between 280, 000-450,000 are mostly Russian and Georgian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic, there is also a small ethnic Azerbaijani Protestant Christian community most of them came from Muslim backgrounds. The Molokans are a Christian minority which, much like Protestants in

Christianity in Kosovo
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Christianity in Kosovo has a long-standing tradition dating to the Roman Empire. Before the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the entire Balkan region had been Christianized by both the Roman and Byzantine Empires, from 1389 until 1912, Kosovo was officially governed by the Muslim Ottoman Empire and a high level of Islamization occurred. During the time pe

Christianity in Albania
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Christianity in Albania was established throughout the country in 325 AD. From 1100 AD, the Byzantine Empire carried out Church missions in the area, in relation to the increasing influence of Venice, the Franciscans started to settle down in the area in the 13th century. From the 15th century to the 19th century, under the rule of the Ottoman Empi

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Byzantine Orthodox Church in Berat.

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Catholic church in Vlorë.

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One of Tirana 's Catholic churches.

Christianity in Kazakhstan
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Christianity in Kazakhstan is the second most practiced religion after Islam. About 1.5 percent of the population is ethnically German, there are also many Presbyterians, Jehovahs Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists and Pentecostals. Methodists, Mennonites, and Mormons have also registered churches with the government, there are more Protestant congr

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Orthodox prayers in Zenkov cathedral. Almaty.

3.
Map from a 1903 Polish encyclopedia showing the Naiman people living north of Lake Balkhash in eastern Kazakhstan

Christianity in the Republic of Macedonia
–
The Serbian Holy Synod denounced the decision and condemned the clergy as schismatic. Thenceforth, the Macedonian Church has remained unrecognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, in 1767 the Archbishopric was abolished by the Ottoman authorities and annexed to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Efforts were made throughout the ni

1.
Coat of arms of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric

2.
The Archbishopric of Ohrid circa 1020

3.
Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexy I performing a joint ceremony with Macedonian Archbishop Dositheus II in Skopje, 1962

Christianity in France
–
France is a country where freedom of religion and freedom of thought are guaranteed by virtue of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Republic is based on the principle of laïcité enforced by the 1880s Jules Ferry laws and the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches, while millions in France continue to attend

1.
Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille. Catholic Christianity is the largest religion in France.

2.
Central Mosque in Fréjus. Sunni Islam is the second largest religion in France.

3.
Louis IX was a King of France who later was beatified as a Catholic saint.

Christianity in the United Kingdom
–
Religion in the United Kingdom and in the countries that preceded it has been dominated, for over 1,400 years, by various forms of Christianity. According to the 2011 UK census, Christianity is the religion, followed by Islam. Among Christians, Anglicans are the most common denomination, followed by Roman Catholics and this, and the relatively larg

1.
Westminster Abbey is used for the coronation of British monarchs

2.
Fourth century Chi-Rho fresco from Lullingstone Roman Villa, Kent, which contains the only known Christian paintings from the Roman era in Britain.

3.
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool

4.
The Methodist church at Haroldswick is the most northerly church in the United Kingdom

Christianity in Sweden
–
Lutheran Christianity is officially the largest religion in Sweden, with 6.2 million Swedish citizens being members of the Church of Sweden. The high membership figure is mainly due to the fact that until 1996 all newborn children with at least one parent being a member of the church were made members. Other Christian Churches include the Catholic

1.
Umeå City Church

2.
Gamla Uppsala, the centre of worship in Sweden until the temple was destroyed in the late 11th century.

3.
Uppsala Cathedral is the seat of the Church of Sweden.

4.
St. Eric's Cathedral, Stockholm

Christianity in Germany
–
Christianity is the largest religion in Germany, with an estimated 59. 4% of the countrys population in 2015. The two largest churches of the country are the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church in Germany, together, both churches claim 56% of the population in 2015, of which 28. 9% belonged to the Catholic Church and 27. 1% to the Evan

1.
Cologne Cathedral in Cologne is a UNESCO world heritage site.

2.
The religious situation in the German Empire about 1895. Tan, red and pink areas are predominantly Protestant, blue areas predominantly Catholic.

3.
Martin Luther (1483–1546)

4.
Bible translated into Modern High German by Luther, 1534

Christianity in Belarus
–
The majority of the population of Belarus is Eastern Orthodox. The majority of Orthodox Christians in Belarus belong to the Belarusian Orthodox Church, there is a Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church which is not officially registered. There are about 1.7 million Catholics in the country, the Roman Catholic archdiocese is the archdiocese Minsk

Christianity in Switzerland
–
Christianity is the predominant religion of Switzerland, its presence going back to the Roman era. Since the 16th century, Switzerland has been divided into Roman Catholic. However, adherence to churches has declined since the late 20th century, furthermore notable is the significant difference in church adherence between Swiss citizens and foreign

1.
A church in Fischenthal, a village in the canton of Zurich

2.
Minaret at the mosque of the local Turkish cultural association in Wangen bei Olten. Inaugurated in July 2009, after four years of legal and political controversy, this minaret, a Turkey-made plastic construction placed on the roof of the Turkish cultural center, was the initial motivation for the popular initiative voted upon later in 2009 which led to a nationwide ban of further minarets.

3.
Basilique de Valère (12th century) in Sion

Christianity in Cyprus
–
Christianity in Cyprus is the largest religion making up 78% of the islands population. The largest branch is the Greek Orthodox Church, while the rest are the religious groups of the Anglicans, Roman and Latin Christians, Maronites, Armenian Apostolics. The most important church in Cyprus, the Church of Cyprus, is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox C

1.
Agia Napa monastery

3.
Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca

4.
Agia Paraskevi Byzantine church in Yeroskipou

Christianity in Russia
–
Christianity in Russia is by some estimates the largest religion in the country, with nearly 50% of the population identifying as Christian. The largest tradition is the Russian Orthodox Church, by official information, there are 68 eparchies of Russian Orthodox Church. A large number of operating in the country are from Protestant denominations. I

1.
Holy Trinity Cathedral in Sergiev Posad

3.
Catholic Church in St.Petersburg

4.
Lutheran Church in Moscow

Christianity in Montenegro
–
While Orthodox Christianity is the dominant form of religion in Montenegro, there are also sizable numbers of adherents of both Islam and Catholic Christianity. The dominant Church is the Serbian Orthodox Church although traces of a forming Montenegrin Orthodox Church are present, Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion in Montenegro. Adhere

1.
Orthodox Church in Cetinje, Montenegro

2.
Religion map of the Republic of Montenegro

Christianity in Slovenia
–
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a nation state in southern Central Europe, located at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and it covers 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.0

Christianity in Spain
–
The Catholic Church in Spain is part of the Catholic Church under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome, and the Spanish Episcopal Conference. According to romans 15,28 in the Romans, Roman Catholicism, after 410 AD, Spain was taken over by the Visigoths who had been converted to Arian Christianity around 360. From the 5th to the 7th century

1.
Royal Collegiate Church of Santa María la Mayor in Antequera, Andalusia

2.
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

Christianity in Finland
–
Most people in Finland are at least nominally members of a Christian church. Those who officially belong to one of the two churches have part of their taxes turned over to their church. People can also belong to one or more registered religious communities, other religions practiced in Finland include Islam and Judaism. Prior to Christianisation be

1.
The Cathedral of Turku is considered as the national shrine of Finland

2.
Uspenski Cathedral in Helsinki belongs to Finnish Orthodox Church.

3.
Petäjävesi Old Church is an old Lutheran wooden church and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Christianity in Italy
–
Christianity in Italy is characterised by the predominance of the Catholic Church. The countrys Catholic patron saints are Francis of Assisi and Catherine of Siena, according to a 2006 survey by Eurispes, Catholics made up 87. 8% of the population, with 36. 8% describing themselves as observants. According to the poll in 2010, those percentages fel

Christianity in Denmark
–
Christianity is the predominant religion of Denmark, with 77% of the Danish population estimated as adherents of the Folkekirken, Denmarks national Lutheran church. Aside from Lutheranism, there is a small Roman Catholic minority, as well as small Protestant denominations such as the Baptist Union of Denmark, Denmark is today a very secular country

1.
St. Canute's Cathedral, Odense

3.
St. Ansgar's Cathedral, Copenhagen

4.
"Mormons visit a country carpenter" (1856) by Christen Dalsgaard, depicting a mid-19th century visit of a Mormon missionary to a Danish carpenter's workshop. The first Mormon missionaries arrived in Denmark in 1850.

Christianity in Ukraine
–
The History of Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries of the apostolic church. Although separated into various denominations, most Ukrainian Christians share a common faith and this tradition is represented in Ukraine by both Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, which have been at various historic times closely alig

1.
St Andrew's prophecy of Kiev depicted in Radzivill Chronicle.

3.
The ruins of Korsun (Chersonesos) Crimea, a place where the East Slavic Christianity was born.

Christianity in Norway
–
Christianity is the largest religion in Norway. Norway has historically been called a Christian country, a majority of the population are members of the Church of Norway with 76. 1% of the population officially belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway in 2013. At numerous times in history, Norway sent more missionaries per capita than

1.
The conversion of Norway to Christianity began in 1000 AD. Prior to the conversion Norwegians practised Norse paganism.

2.
The Norwegian Bible, Bibelen.

3.
From the Battle of Stiklestad.

4.
Shamanism persisted among the Sami up until the 18th century, but no longer exists in its traditional form. Most Sami today belong to the Lutheran church of Norway.

Christianity in Georgia
–
Today 82% of the population in Georgia practices Orthodox Christianity, primarily the Georgian Orthodox Church. According to Orthodox tradition, Christianity was first preached in Georgia by the Apostles Simon and it became the state religion of Kartli in 319. The conversion of Kartli to Christianity is credited to a Greek lady called St. Nino of C

1.
The Kartvelian people

3.
A page from a rare Georgian bible, dating from AD 1030, depicting the Raising of Lazarus

Christianity in Lithuania
–
As per the 2011 census, the predominant religion in Lithuania is Christianity, with the largest confession being Roman Catholicism. In the early 21st century, about 77% of the population is Roman Catholic according to the 2011 census, there are also smaller groups of Orthodox Christians, Evangelical Lutherans, members of Reformed churches, other Pr

1.
Cathedral of the Theotokos, Vilnius

2.
Vilnius Cathedral, is the heart of Catholic spiritual life in Lithuania.

3.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Vyžiai

4.
Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Church in Biržai

Christianity in Portugal
–
The most predominant religion in Portugal is Christianity, mainly is Catholicism. The educational and health systems were for a long time the Churchs preserve. Although Church and State are formally separate, the Catholic Church still receives certain privileges, statistically, religious practice increases with increasing age, the younger generatio

1.
Interior of the Jerónimos Monastery, in Lisbon.

2.
The image of Our Lady of Fátima present in the Chapel of Apparitions at the Fátima Shrine.

3.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima.

4.
The Lisbon Mosque.

Christianity in Ireland
–
Christianity is and has been the largest religion in Ireland. Most Christian churches are organized on a basis, including both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland,84. 2% of the population adheres to the Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism in Ireland is part of the worldwide Catholic Church. The Catholic Chu

1.
Saint Patrick, a Romano-Briton Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognised patron saint of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Columba are also patron saints.

2.
St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh. Seat of the Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland.

3.
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh

4.
Saul church, a modern replica of an early church with a round tower, is built on the reputed spot of St. Patrick's first church in Ireland.

Christianity in Serbia
–
Christianity is the predominant religion in Serbia. The Constitution of Serbia defines it as a state with guaranteed religious freedom. Orthodox Christians with 6,079,396 comprise 84. 5% of countrys population, the Serbian Orthodox Church is the largest and traditional church of the country, adherents of which are overwhelmingly Serbs. Other Orthod

1.
St. Mark's Church, Belgrade

2.
Catholic church in Subotica

3.
Prayer House of Nazarene Christian Community in Novi Sad

4.
Western Orthodox church of saint Antun in Petrovaradin

Christianity in Poland
–
While there are a number of religious communities operating in Poland, the majority of its population adheres to Christianity. Within this, the largest grouping is the Roman Catholic Church - with 92. 2% of Poles in 2011 identifying as Roman Catholic, 65% of Polish believers attend church services on a regular basis. It is particularly regarded by

1.
St. Bobola's Cathedral in Radom.

2.
Roman Catholic St. Florian's Cathedral, Warsaw

3.
Hindu temple in Czarnków.

4.
St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral in Poznań

Christianity in Iceland
–
Starting in the 1530s, Iceland, originally Roman Catholic and under the Danish crown, formally became Lutheran under the Icelandic Reformation, which culminated in 1550. As such, Iceland has a state Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland, the state church is supported by the government, but all registered religions received support from

1.
Traditionally-built church at Hellnar, Snæfellsnes

2.
Reykjavik Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of Iceland

Christianity in Malta
–
In the small Mediterranean island nation of Malta the predominant religion is Roman Catholicism. The Church in Malta is described in the Book of Acts to have founded by its patrons Saint Paul the Apostle and Saint Publius. According to tradition, Publius, the Roman Governor of Malta at the time of Saint Pauls shipwreck, after ruling the Maltese Chu

1.
St Paul's Anglican Cathedral

3.
St John's Co-Cathedral

Christianity in Armenia
–
As of 2011 Most of Armenians are nominally Christians and members of Armenias own church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is one of the oldest Christian churches. It was founded in the 1st century AD, and in 301 AD became the first branch of Christianity to become a state religion. However, in times, and especially after the Soviet period, onl

1.
Baptism of Tiridates III

2.
Procession of Armenian Apostolic priests.

3.
Minaret of the Urban Mosque in Erivan

4.
The works of Armenian nationalist philosopher Garegin Nzhdeh inspired the reconstruction of Armenian paganism in the 20th century.

Christianity in Romania
–
Romania is a secular state, and it has no state religion. However, Romania is one of the most religious countries in the European Union, the Romanian state officially recognizes 18 religions and denominations. 81. 04% of the stable population identified as Eastern Orthodox in the 2011 census. Other Christian denominations include Roman Catholicism,

1.
Metropolitan Cathedral in Iași, the largest Orthodox church in Romania

2.
The Roman Catholic Church, Arad

3.
The dome of the Carol I Mosque in Constanța, topped by the Islamic crescent

4.
Zalmoxian fire rite.

Christianity in Vatican City
–
Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with

1.
View of St. Peter's Square from the top of Michelangelo's dome

2.
Flag

3.
The Vatican obelisk was originally taken from Egypt by Caligula.

4.
Bands of the British army's 38th Brigade playing in front of St Peter's Basilica, June 1944

Christianity
–
Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah

1.
An Eastern Christian icon depicting Emperor Constantine and the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea (325) as holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381

2.
Various depictions of Jesus

3.
Crucifixion, representing the death of Jesus on the Cross, painting by Diego Velázquez, 17th century

Religion in Europe
–
Religion in Europe has been a major influence on todays society art, culture, philosophy and law. The largest religion in Europe is Christianity, three countries in Southeastern Europe have Muslim majorities. Ancient European religions included veneration for deities such as Zeus, modern revival movements of these religions include Heathenism, Rodn

1.
View of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the largest European Roman Catholic Church

2.
More than 75% of those asked by the Eurobarometer 2010 poll expressed positive "belief in God " in Malta, Turkey, Cyprus, Romania, Greece, and Poland.

3.
Cathedral of Saint Sava in Serbia is the largest Orthodox church in the world

4.
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia is one of the largest Orthodox cathedrals

Pauline Epistles
–
The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the 13 New Testament books which have the name Paul as the first word, hence claiming authorship by Paul the Apostle. Among these letters are some of the earliest extant Christian documents and they provide an insight into the beliefs and controversies of early Christianity and as part

1.
Events in the Life of Paul according to Acts of the Apostles

Greece
–
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan pe

1.
Fresco displaying the Minoan ritual of "bull leaping", found in Knossos, Crete.

2.
Flag

3.
The Lion Gate, Mycenae

4.
The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is one of the best known symbols of classical Greece.

Roman Empire
–
Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,

1.
The Augustus of Prima Porta (early 1st century AD)

2.
Aureus of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor.

3.
A segment of the ruins of Hadrian's Wall in northern England

Pew Research Center
–
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American fact tank, which is based in Washington, D. C. It provides information on issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States. It also conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis, Pew Research Center does not take explicit policy positions, and

1.
Gathering data

Demographics of Europe
–
Figures for the population of Europe vary according to which definition of European boundaries is used. The population within the physical geographical boundaries was 740 million in 2010 according to the United Nations. Population growth is low, and median age comparatively high in relation to the worlds other continents. Since the Renaissance, Eur

1.
< 50 inhabitants per km 2

Christians
–
A Christian is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian derives from the Koine Greek word Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach, while there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are unit

1.
Set of pictures for a number of famous Christians from various fields.

2.
The Church of St Peter near Antakya, Turkey, in Antioch the disciples were called Christians.

3.
Nazareth the city is described as the childhood home of Jesus, in many languages employ the word Nazarene as a general designation for those of the Christian faith.

Catholics
–
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.27 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilisation, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summ

1.
Ruins of gothic Catholic church in Liptovská Mara (Slovakia).

2.
Ancient statue of Saint Peter in the Basilica dedicated to him in the Vatican.

3.
An Italian priest during the sacrament of Baptism

Christian
–
A Christian is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christian derives from the Koine Greek word Christós, a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach, while there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are unit

1.
Set of pictures for a number of famous Christians from various fields.

2.
The Church of St Peter near Antakya, Turkey, in Antioch the disciples were called Christians.

3.
Nazareth the city is described as the childhood home of Jesus, in many languages employ the word Nazarene as a general designation for those of the Christian faith.

Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europ

1.
Reconstruction of Herodotus ' world map

3.
A medieval T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of Noah — Asia to Sem (Shem), Europe to Iafeth (Japheth), and Africa to Cham (Ham)

4.
Early modern depiction of Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical Europa of the 8th century BC.

Eastern Orthodox Church
–
The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teache

1.
Orthodox liturgy

2.
An icon of John the Baptist, 14th century, Macedonia

Protestant Reformation
–
The period is usually considered to have begun with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Luther in 1517 to the Thirty Years War and ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura, the initial movement within Germany diversified, and other refor

1.
Protestant Reformation

2.
Execution of Jan Hus, an important Reformation precursor, in 1415.

3.
Martin Luther, shown in a portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder, initiated the Protestant Reformation in 1517.

4.
Martin Luther's 1534 Bible translated into German. Luther's translation influenced the development of the current Standard German.

Protestant
–
Protestantism is a form of Christianity which originated with the Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. The term derives from the letter of protestation from German Lutheran princes in 15

1.
(The Ninety-Five Theses)

2.
The Memorial Church in Speyer, Germany

3.
Key figures of the Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther and John Calvin depicted on a church pulpit. These reformers emphasised preaching and made it a centerpiece of worship.

4.
The Bible translated into vernacular by Martin Luther. The supreme authority of scripture is a fundamental principle of Protestantism.

Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety

1.
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century

2.
Flag

3.
The Baptism of Kievans, by Klavdy Lebedev

4.
Sergius of Radonezh blessing Dmitry Donskoy in Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by Ernst Lissner

Germany
–
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular

1.
The Nebra sky disk is dated to c. 1600 BC.

2.
Flag

3.
Martin Luther (1483–1546) initiated the Protestant Reformation.

4.
Foundation of the German Empire in Versailles, 1871. Bismarck is at the center in a white uniform.

Italy
–
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is refe

1.
The Colosseum in Rome, built c. 70 – 80 AD, is considered one of the greatest works of architecture and engineering of ancient history.

2.
Flag

3.
The Iron Crown of Lombardy, for centuries symbol of the Kings of Italy.

4.
Castel del Monte, built by German Emperor Frederick II, UNESCO World Heritage site

1.
Nestorian priests in a procession on Palm Sunday, in a 7th- or 8th-century wall painting from a Nestorian church in Tang China

2.
The Nestorian Stele, created in 781, describes the introduction of Nestorian Christianity to China

3.
Mar Elias (Eliya), the Nestorian bishop of the Urmia plain village of Geogtapa, c.1831.The image comes from Justin Perkins, 'A Residence of Eight Years in Persia among the Nestorians, with Notes of the Mohammedans' (Andover, 1843)

1.
Clockwise from upper left: a self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh; a female ancestor figure by a Chokwe artist; detail from the Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli; and an Okinawan Shisa lion.

2.
Works of art can tell stories or simply express an aesthetic truth or feeling. Panorama of a section of A Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers, a 12th-century painting by Song dynasty artist Wang Ximeng.

3.
20th-century Rwandan bottle. Artistic works may serve practical functions, in addition to their decorative value.

1.
The Way of St. James (el Camino de Santiago), is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where legend has it that the remains of the apostle, Saint James the Great. The route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987; it was also named one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites in 1993.

1.
This T-and-O map, which abstracts the then known world to a cross inscribed within an orb, remakes geography in the service of Christian iconography. More detailed versions place Jerusalem at the center of the world.

2.
Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine and the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (AD 325) holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

2.
Artist depiction of "Saint Paul Writing His Epistles", 16th century (Blaffer Foundation Collection, Houston, Texas). Lightfoot notes with respect to verse 6:11 that at this point "the apostle takes the pen from his amanuensis, and the concluding paragraph is written with his own hand".

3.
Engraving of Etchmiadzin by French traveler Jean Chardin, 1670s (detail) Robert Sears described the monastery in 1855 as follows: "The monastery is surrounded by a wall thirty feet high, entered by four gates, and flanked by towers, which, as well as the walls, are built of brick, excepting the base, and furnished with loopholes, giving the whole structure the appearance of a large quadrangular fortress."

1.
Die Hunnen im Kampf mit den Alanen, (The Huns in battle with the Alans by Johann Nepomuk Geiger, 1873). The Alans, an Iranian people who lived north and east of the Black Sea, were Europe's first line of defence against the Asiatic Huns. They were dislocated and settled throughout the Roman Empire

2.
Charlemagne 's empire (814)

3.
The Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna is the only extant example of Ostrogothic architecture.

1.
St. Francis Xavier converting the Paravas seeking protection of Portuguese explorers from Arab fleets offshore: a 19th-century representation of the "docile heathen".

2.
James the Just, whose judgment was adopted in the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15:19-29, c. 50 AD: "...we should write to them [Gentiles] to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood..." (NRSV)

1.
St. Francis Xavier converting the Paravas seeking protection of Portuguese explorers from Arab fleets offshore: a 19th-century representation of the "docile heathen".

2.
James the Just, whose judgment was adopted in the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15:19-29, c. 50 AD: "...we should write to them [Gentiles] to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood..." (NRSV)

1.
The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

2.
A late Roman statue depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in Venice

3.
Coin of Theodoric

4.
Mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers

2.
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2011)

3.
Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings during the Norman invasion of England

2.
Epicurus is credited with first expounding the problem of evil. David Hume in his Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (1779) cited Epicurus in stating the argument as a series of questions: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

1.
Anonymous Venetian orientalist painting, The Reception of the Ambassadors in Damascus, 1511, the Louvre. The deer with antlers in the foreground is not known ever to have existed in the wild in Syria.